Joey Logano is used to qualifying on the front row – or in the top 12 at the very least.
Thirteen races into the season, Logano has one pole (Phoenix), one outside pole (Kansas), and seven top-12 starting spots.
Something Logano is definitely not used to is qualifying 26th, but that’s where he’ll start in Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.
Logano made two attempts in Friday’s first round of qualifying, but still wound up being bumped at the end of the session – relegating him to start Sunday’s race on the outside of Row 13.
It was Logano’s second-worst qualifying effort at Dover; his worst was a 33rd qualifying spot in the fall 2011 race.
It’s also his second-worst qualifying effort of 2017, with his worst being 35th at Fontana. He qualified 23rd last week at Charlotte.
When asked by Fox Sports 1 if the problem was related to balance, speed or comfort, Logano replied “All of the above.
“We got loose in the first run in (turns) 3 and 4 and chased it up the racetrack and over-adjusted it a little bit. We got tight two-thirds in the second run and I lost too much speed there.”
So what is the problem?
“We’re lacking speed right now, and I don’t understand completely why,” Logano said. “A lot of different theories, I guess. We’ve lacked speed the last few weeks. So we’ve got some work to do.
“We’ll figure it out. We’re a strong team and we’ve fought back before. We’ll have to fight back this weekend, but we have to fight back in the bigger picture.”