Logano wins Daytona 500 pole, ending Chevy’s streak
DAYTONA BEACH
The new Ford Dark
Horse lived up to its nomenclature on Wednesday in the NASCAR Cup Series’ qualifying session for Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m., Fox).
Running the fastest lap in both rounds of the time trials, Team Penske’s Joey Logano put his car on the pole for the Great American Race, as he and Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell locked their Mustangs — featuring a new body style dubbed the Dark Horse — into the front row for the 500.
Logano secured his first Busch Light Pole Award at Daytona with a final-round lap in 49.465 seconds (181.947 mph), beating McDowell (181.686 mph) by 0.261 seconds. It is also the first Daytona 500 pole for Team Penske.
“This is all about the team,” said Logano, who scored the 29th pole of his career. “I’d like to take credit, but I can’t today.
The guys have done such an amazing job working on these cars. Speedway qualifying is 100 percent the car.
“There’s only so much a driver can do, so I’m really proud of them. It’s a big win for our team. … Finally, someone else wins the pole — that part feels good. I’ve never even been close to a superspeedway pole before, so my first pole on a speedway couldn’t be at a cooler event than the Daytona 500.”
Chevrolets had won the previous 11 Daytona 500 poles. Cars sporting Hendrick Motorsports power had won the previous nine, and Hendrick drivers had claimed the top starting spot in eight of the past nine years.
Yet the Fords found success in a car that was unknown and untried on a superspeedway.
Hendrick drivers Kyle Larson (181.635 mph), Chase Elliott (181.178 mph) and William Byron (181.174 mph) qualified third, fifth and sixth, respectively, with Ford driver and 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric posting the fourthfastest final-round lap at 181.207 mph.
Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch were seventh and eighth fastest, followed by Ross Chastain and Harrison Burton.
However, the only two drivers who know where they will start on Sunday are Logano and McDowell, both former Daytona 500 winners.
The rest of the field will be set in Thursday night’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel 150-mile qualifying races, with the odd-numbered qualifiers racing in Duel 1 and the even-numbered qualifiers competing in Duel 2.
Among those trying to race into the 500 is seventime NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, who failed to time into Sunday’s race in his No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota.
HAMLIN MULLS 4TH DAYTONA 500 WIN
Denny Hamlin sat at the dais in the Daytona International Speedway media center, a photo recalling the history he hopes to achieve hung on the wall to his immediate left.
It was a Victory Lane shot of NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough, holding the Harley J. Earl
Award he earned by winning the 1977 Daytona
500.
Yarborough, who died in December at 84, won the Great American Race four times, second only to the seven victories achieved by seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Richard Petty.
Hamlin, one of four drivers to have won backto-back Daytona 500s — the others being Yarborough, Petty and Sterling Marlin — will make his fourth attempt to match Yarborough’s win total in Sunday’s race.
The most significant hole in Hamlin’s all-but-certain Hall-of-Fame résumé is the lack of a series championship, but the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota would be loath to pick between a fourth Daytona 500 and a title.
“By the outside views, this is the pinnacle of our sport,” Hamlin said on Wednesday during Daytona 500 media day. “The championship is decided in one race, just like this is decided in one race. I’m not really sure. It just depends on whose perspective it might be. But certainly, with the championship getting a smaller and smaller sample size, I view them very similarly.”
To win a fourth 500, Hamlin believes he’ll have to approach the race in a more self-centered way, rather than relying on the help of teammates or fellow Toyota drivers.
“I think it’s in my best interest in getting back to basics, and that’s doing what I feel is best to win the race for myself,” Hamlin explained. “While having teammates is great, and they are certainly assets to use in certain situations to win races, I think sometimes it’s those who are the most selfish, that make moves for themselves, are those who win the race.
BUSCH LOOKS TO FILL HOLE IN HIS RÉSUMÉ
Before his breakthrough victory in the 1998 Daytona 500, the late Dale Earnhardt had won everything else there was to win at Daytona International
Speedway.
Finally, in his 20th attempt, Earnhardt broke the jinx that had haunted him throughout his career and won the Great American Race.
Likewise, Kyle Busch has been to Victory Lane at Daytona on numerous occasions — just not in the race he covets most. He has won the Clash twice, triumphed three times in the Duels and claimed one trophy in the summer race at the World Center of Racing.
Busch will make his 19th Daytona 500 start on Sunday. It would have been his 20th, but for a 2015 injury suffered in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race a day before the 500 that sidelined him for the first 11 events of the season.
So, if not precisely comparable, Busch is in a position like the one Earnhardt faced in 1998.
“Trust me, I’m well aware,” Busch said. “Thank you very much. I hope we can talk about some of the same storylines on Sunday. That would be nice.”
Last year’s running of the 500 still sticks in Busch’s craw. He led the race under caution at Lap 200 (500 miles) but was collected in a wreck during overtime. Taking the checkered flag under green has continued to elude him.
“I have not done that yet, although I won the Daytona 500 last year under the yellow flag, not under the checkered flag,” Busch quipped. “Those damn technicalities keep coming up and getting me.”
WALLACE NEEDS SLIGHT IMPROVEMENT
It’s hard to argue with Bubba Wallace’s past performance at Daytona International
Speedway.
In 13 starts at the 2.5mile track, Wallace has posted an admirable average finish of 12.9 and has completed 2,303 of a possible 2,346 laps (98.2 percent). He has led 28 laps and has been in the front of the field more often than not.
In his best two Daytona 500 races, Wallace finished second to Austin Dillon by 0.260 seconds in 2018 and second to Austin Cindric by 0.036 seconds in 2022.
GRAGSON GRATEFUL FOR A 2ND CHANCE
After steady progress toward the upper echelons of stock car racing, Noah Gragson made a critical mistake that altered the trajectory of his career.
Armed now with a new perspective, Gragson hopes to restart his truncated stint in the NASCAR Cup Series with a new team, StewartHaas Racing.
Gragson was suspended last August for “liking” a racially insensitive social media post relating to the death of George Floyd. He resigned as driver of the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Chevrolet 21 races into the NASCAR Cup Series season.
Gragson earned reinstatement in September and subsequently landed a ride in the No. 10 StewartHaas Ford, replacing Aric Almirola. He’s grateful for the opportunity to prove himself.
“Yeah, it’s definitely a reboot,” said Gragson, who won eight NASCAR Xfinity Series races with JR Motorsports in 2022 and finished second in the final standings before moving up to the Cup Series with Legacy. “It’s incredible to get an opportunity like this.”