Joey Logano earns NASCAR Cup pole as Ford dominates Atlanta qualifying

Ford drivers managed to qualify first through eighth as Team Penske’s Joey Logano claimed pole position for the NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta, narrowly beating Josh Berry in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford. Along with the technically-aligned No. 21 machine, cars prepared by Penske ended up locking out the first two rows on the grid.

“Well you know we all have the same thing and obviously, Team Penske does a great job at building the same cars it seems like — all of us in the top four there,” said Logano, who has two wins at the Georgia track. “Proud of everyone at the shop. Proud of Roush-Yates engines. This is always a test of how much speed you can put in them. They’re fast for qualifying but let’s see what we got in the race.”

Logano and Berry will be followed by Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, and Ryan Preece in the top five. Brad Keselowski, Cole Custer, Zane Smith, Alex Bowman and Chase Briscoe filled out the remainder of the top ten. Showcasing just how dominant they were, Bowman in ninth was the top-qualifying non-Ford driver. 

While it was blue skies at the track, lightning within eight miles of the 1.5-mile speedway forced NASCAR to put things on hold early in the qualifying. At the time, 14 cars had qualified, but in the name of safety, NASCAR waited 30 minutes before resuming the session.

At the time of the lightning hold, Custer had the fast time in the No. 41 Haas Factory Ford. It was a solid lap, but not good enough as his fellow Ford drivers began to knock him down the order. 

There were no incidents, but Michael McDowell did touch the outside wall as he began his flying lap. Chase Elliott also had a sketchy moment in Turns 3/4, getting loose.

Several big names find themselves buried deep in the field as the entirety of Trackhouse Racing qualified outside the top 30. Denny Hamlin, who would have started on pole (per the metric) if the lightning had persisted, ended up 33rd in the final order. Christopher Bell and Carson Hocevar, who finished 1-2 in the last Cup race at Atlanta, qualified 28th and 30th, respectively.