Joey Logano did not take a qualifying run for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Auto Club Speedway after failing to get through inspection Friday.
He made up for that on Saturday, taking the pole for that afternoon’s Service King 300 with a top speed at 182.556 mph. It was the 32nd Xfinity pole in Logano’s career.
The No. 22 Ford Fusion hasn’t won for Team Penske since 2015. Ford also hasn’t won an Xfinity race at Fontana since 2007 (Matt Kenseth won).
“It’s nice to see speed back in the 22 again,” Logano told Fox Sports 1. “It’s been a while since they’ve won, and today would be a great day for that.”
Daniel Hemric qualified a career-best second (181.658).
“If you’re going to be second to a guy like Joey – he’s been around here a couple times – so we’ll take it,” Hemric told FS1.
Hemric was followed by Erik Jones (181.470), Cole Custer with a career-best start (180.955), Paul Menard (180.5789.7), William Byron (180.451), Kyle Larson (180.397), Brandon Jones (179.982), Ty Dillon (179.847), Darrell Wallace Jr. (179.717), Blake Koch (179.448) and Brendan Gaughan (178.527).
Saturday’s race will take the green flag shortly after 4 p.m. ET. It will be televised on FS1.