Logano wins his 2nd pole of season

BROOKLYN, MICH.» Joey Logano was just a bit faster than Aric Almirola during qualifying.

Almirola is getting used to that feeling.

Logano won his second NASCAR Cup Series pole of the season Saturday, while Almirola again fell just short of the top qualifying spot. Almirola has one pole this year but is set to start in the No. 2 spot for the fourth time.

“Close but no cigar. What is that old saying — close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades?” Almirola said. “That is frustrating to get that close to getting a pole that often and only have one pole. We seem to always get beat just by a little bit by somebody different every time.”

This was Logano’s 22nd career pole and fourth at Michigan International Speedway. He’ll try for his second victory of the season Sunday. Kevin Harvick qualified third.

Reddick earns 3rd Xfinity victory of season. BROOKLYN, MICH.» Tyler Reddick trailed Cole Custer and Christopher Bell during the latter stages of this NASCAR Xfinity Series race.

There was no need to try to pass them.

“As much as I wanted to run down the guys in front of us, it became very obvious that they weren’t going to make it on fuel,” Reddick said.

Sure enough, Custer and Bell had to make pit stops, and Reddick took the lead with about 10 laps remaining. It was smooth sailing the rest of the way for Reddick at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday. He won for the third time in the past five races and the sixth time in his career.

Reddick increased his series points lead to 89 over the second-place Bell.

Noah Gragson battled to a second-place finish, followed by Michael Annett and Paul Menard.

Newgarden gets 1st Texas win. FORT WORTH, TEXAS» Josef Newgarden has his first Indycar victory in Texas and is the first three-time winner in the series this year.

Newgarden held off Alexander Rossi over the final 10 laps. Newgarden won the season opener in St. Petersburg and again last week in the first of two in Detroit.

Defending champion Scott Dixon was knocked out after tangling with 19-year-old Colton Herta with about 20 laps remaining. Dixon ended up 17th and Herta 18th. Dixon was trying to tie the track record with a fourth Texas win.

It was another win for Team Penske in Texas as well. The fifth win this season for Penske was its 14th in the past 19 races on the 1½-mile high speed oval.

Rossi pulled even and got slightly past Newgarden several times over the closing laps. But Newgarden kept pulling back in front going into the first turn.