By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
AVONDALE, Ariz. – Joey Logano will enter Sunday’s race with the best view in the house, taking the green flag as the pole sitter in the Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
Logano clocked in at 26.561 seconds (135.537 mph) to score his first Busch Light Pole Award of the season, 0.117 seconds quicker than outside pole sitter Kyle Larson.
Saturday’s pole marked the 34th of his career and after securing the top spot in qualifying, Logano explained his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford was really good and gave props to his Team Penske squad.
“The car, I thought was good in race trim – a lot of sliding around from everybody,” said Logano. “It’s funny because it doesn’t drive nice, but the pace was there, which was encouraging for (Sunday) because it still feels like there are some areas to get better, and then Paul (Wolfe, Logano’s crew chief) and Joe (Bisson, race engineer) and the guys did a good job at dialing it in and getting the balance really good for qualifying to where I didn’t have to do anything crazy to make speed. It just happened, so I’m really proud of that.”
The 312-lap race is significant to Logano as he’ll look to cap off a Penske sweep in not just in qualifying but winning the race following Josef Newgarden’s IndyCar victory at Phoenix. Additionally, Logano is sporting Penske IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin’s Shell livery when he won the 2019 Bathurst 1000.
“Obviously, this is a big weekend for Team Penske with the Indycars here. (David) Malukas getting the pole for here and then us being able to do it on our end, too. There’s a little bit of a rivalry there. I don’t know if we’ve really talked about it, but I think internally all of us want to deliver some wins this weekend.
“On top of that, our paint scheme for this weekend is also really special. It’s the Scott McLaughlin Bathurst 1000 win, so that was really big for his career, but also really big for Team Penske. That car won, I think it was 18 or 16 races that year. It was a boat load.
“You start to lose count when you get to your toes, so he’s definitely done a lot in that paint job, so it’s neat to continue some of that success, at least in qualifying.”
To do so, not only he’ll look to stop Tyler Reddick from becoming the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to win four straight races but also tackle the hot temperatures throughout the day and the effects it could lead to his Ford Mustang.
“The big thing that’s in our mind right now is that the track temp is going to be up significantly from what we just had in practice and what does that do to our race car,” Logano explained. “Obviously, we’re gonna go slower. The pace for the whole field will be down. The cars will be slipping and sliding. The track will rubber up. It will get wider, which is good. It was already getting wide in practice, so the track will be getting a little bit wider so we can have more options to pass. Fall off is gonna be a real thing.
“There’s a lot of thoughts right now and some things that we want to do to dial our car in a little bit better too as well.”
Live race coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1. Christopher Bell is the defending race winner.
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