Written by Greg Atkins
RIDGEWAY, V.A. –– Joey Logano picked up right where he left off last fall at Martinsville Speedway: atop the scoring pylon.
Logano placed his car on the provisional pole for tomorrow’s STP 500. The pole, provided he passes technical inspection tomorrow morning, will be his fifth career pole at the half-mile paperclip.
Each of Logano’s poles has come since 2015, showing a pattern of dominance on Saturday’s with his No. 22 team.
The most important aspect of claiming the top spot in qualifying, especially at Martinsville, is pit selection. There are four specific stalls here at Martinsville that can be considered “prime real estate.” Chief among them is pit stall no. 1 at the end of pit road with a clear exit out onto the racetrack. Logano’s team will almost certainly choose that one.
Joining Logano in the ability to select one of those coveted pit stalls is Ford compatriots Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski, and Kevin Harvick. Denny Hamlin rounds out the top five.
William Byron logged an impressive sixth-place effort. Followed by Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., and Daniel Suárez to round out the top ten.
Qualifying is vital here, but there are 500 laps of hard-nosed short track racing on deck for tomorrow, and Logano knows that there is plenty of work to do before the race weekend is over.
(Image Credit: Greg Atkins / The SkyBoat)
