Logano wins pole

Joey Logano won the pole at Martinsville Speedway to set up a shot at his fourth consecutive victory. Logano turned a lap of 98.548 mph in Friday qualifying at the Virginia track to earn the top starting spot. He heads into Sunday’s race coming off three consecutive victories — a sweep of the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Should Logano win Sunday, he’ll be the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to win four consecutive races. Martin Truex Jr. qualified second and was followed by non-Chase drivers AJ Allmendinger and Jamie McMurray. Jeff Gordon will try to win his ninth career race at Martinsville from the fifth starting spot. Kyle Busch qualified sixth and was followed by Ryan Newman.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg posted the fastest practice time of the day Friday as Formula One ran its first official laps at the revamped Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez since 1992 in preparation for this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix in Mexico City. Rosberg was fastest in the second practice with a lap of 1 minute, 21.531 seconds. He is chasing Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel for second place in the driver standings with three races left. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton won the season championship last week at the United States Grand Prix. Toro Rosso teenager Max Verstappen topped the first practice with a lap of 1:25.990, topping a driving session for the first time in his career. The rookie, who turned 18 in September and only recently earned his Dutch driver’s license, didn’t fare as well in the later session: The tricky course caught him in the second practice when he crashed minutes in and had to get a ride back to his garage where he spent the rest of the session.