KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Playoff driver Joey Logano bucked conventional wisdom with his pole-winning run in Friday’s knockout qualifying session for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.
The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford was fourth fastest in the first round and third in the second round. In the final round, however, with the Busch Pole Award on the line, Logano ran the fastest lap of the day (191.646 mph) on tires that had already completed two hot laps.
Logano wasn’t shocked that he could sustain that sort of speed in the money round – far from it.
“Not surprising, for multiple reasons,” Logano told the NASCAR Wire Service. “Sun was going down. It was getting colder. It definitely seems like, as the sun goes down, the track picks up grip. It had so much grip today. From lap 1 (teammate Ryan) Blaney and I were laughing about it. It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going so fast.’
“It’s definitely one of those race tracks that the more you go for it, the bigger the reward is. Also, the penalty is pretty big. We’ve seen that for a couple cars, too (notably Kyle Larson’s crash in opening practice). You get a little outside of it, and you are going for a ride, and it’s hard to regain control. It’s one of those places that the more risk you take the faster you go, but it is also more risk.”
Just because Logano ran fastest on two-lap-old tires doesn’t mean there won’t be tire degradation in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Round of 12 elimination event.
“When the race starts, there will be some tire fall-off, for sure,” Logano said. “This place has definitely worn into a really good race track, one that you can run the top as fast as you run the middle or the bottom for that case.
“It puts on a good race. That’s probably what makes this one of the best repaves we’ve had. The fact that, when they redesigned the race track and paved it to make the top really come in, they did a really good job with that.”
As A Group, Toyota Drivers Are Searching For A Little More Speed
Fast, but not fast enough.
That was the consistent refrain from Toyota drivers after Friday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Kansas Speedway.
Led by Erik Jones, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers claimed the sixth through ninth spots on the grid for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at the 1.5-mile track.
The No. 78 Camry of reigning series champion Martin Truex, Jr. was too loose in the first two rounds and too tight in the final round after an adjustment went too far. He qualified 12th.
On a positive note, all five of the Cup series’ top Toyotas made the top 12. On the other hand, they all qualified behind the five Fords that led the field. That defined the mission of the Camry drivers in Saturday’s two practice sessions: find more speed.
“I think our Craftsman Toyota had pretty good speed, but just not quite enough to get the pole,” Jones said. “We’ll keep working on it, but not a bad effort. We’ll start up here in the top six and go from there.”
Seventh-place qualifier Kyle Busch, second in the series standings and likely a shoo-in to the Round of 8 in the Playoffs, hopes to make his task easier at Kansas than it felt during opening practice.
“Feels like I have to push too hard to make lap time to what I need lap time to be,” Busch said. “We’re struggling for free speed right now – you have to earn it. You just have to figure out what your car is doing, figure out the balance and try to get as much speed as you can.
“With the temperatures being cool, it’s just so fast – just really, really, really fast. You’ve got to be all but perfect in order to have a fast car.”
Denny Hamlin, who will start ninth behind teammate Daniel Suarez, echoed that sentiment.
“Just a little bit slower than what we had hoped for,” said Hamlin, who is looking for his first victory of the year after scoring at least one win in each of his previous 12 seasons. “Organizationally, we’re all kind of right there bunched together, and that’s what we had for speed.
“Just have to make it a little bit better in race trim.”
Busch and Jones accomplished that objective in Saturday’s first practice. Jones was second to Aric Almirola on the speed chart. Busch was fifth fastest but paced the field in consecutive 10-lap average.
Short Strokes
-Jamie McMurray will join Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Kyle Larson at the back of the field for the start of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400. McMurray blew his engine 19 minutes into Saturday’s early practice. With the change in power plants, McMurray must drop to the rear to start the race. Larson, hoping to keep his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title hopes alive with a victory, went to a backup car after a crash in practice on Friday and consequently will start from the back…
-Kurt Busch, last week’s Talladega pole winner, was back on top of the speed chart in Saturday’s final practice. Busch toured 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway in 28.997 seconds (186.226 mph) to edge Erik Jones (186.104 mph) for the fastest lap in Happy Hour. Aric Almirola, who paced Saturday’s first practice at 186.683 mph in cooler temperatures, was third in the final session, followed by Kyle Busch, Paul Menard and Ryan Blaney. Alex Bowman, who needs a victory on Sunday to advance to the Round of 8 in the Playoffs, was ninth fastest, with 184.919 mph as his best lap.
WDUN will have live MRN Radio coverage of Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 from Kansas Speedway beginning at 1:30 pm on 102.9 FM, AM 550 and streaming live on AccessWDUN.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Kansas Speedway – Kansas City, KS
Hollywood Casino 400 – October 21, 2018
Sunday’s Starting Lineup
1. (22) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 191.646 mph.
2. (4) Kevin Harvick (P), Ford, 191.178 mph.
3. (10) Aric Almirola (P), Ford, 190.968 mph.
4. (12) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 190.934 mph.
5. (2) Brad Keselowski (P), Ford, 190.725 mph.
6. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 190.570 mph.
7. (18) Kyle Busch (P), Toyota, 190.543 mph.
8. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 190.449 mph.
9. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 190.027 mph.
10. (88) Alex Bowman (P), Chevrolet, 189.994 mph.
11. (41) Kurt Busch (P), Ford, 189.593 mph.
12. (78) Martin Truex, Jr. (P), Toyota, 189.387 mph.
13. (9) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 190.027 mph.
14. (14) Clint Bowyer (P), Ford, 189.980 mph.
15. (17) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 189.787 mph.
16. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 189.747 mph.
17. (24) William Byron #, Chevrolet, 189.733 mph.
18. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 189.122 mph.
19. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 189.095 mph.
20. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 188.818 mph.
21. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 188.818 mph.
22. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 188.627 mph.
23. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.547 mph.
24. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 187.891 mph.
25. (47) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 187.715 mph.
26. (95) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 187.467 mph.
27. (42) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 187.162 mph.
28. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 187.136 mph.
29. (43) Darrell Wallace, Jr. #, Chevrolet, 186.554 mph.
30. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 186.079 mph.
31. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 185.612 mph.
32. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 183.993 mph.
33. (96) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Toyota, 183.250 mph.
34. (72) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 183.138 mph.
35. (00) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 182.278 mph.
36. (23) J.J. Yeley(i), Toyota, 181.184 mph.
37. (99) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 180.650 mph.
38. (51) B.J. McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 178.141 mph.
39. (7) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 177.889 mph.
40. (66) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, 177.708 mph.
