Logano Claims Pole Position for Playoff Opener at Darlington

The Team Penske driver enters this weekend as the defending race winner, and as the 2 seed in the Cup Series Playoffs. He narrowly edged out Cristopher Bell by 0.009 seconds for the top spot in qualifying, with a speed of 168.521 mph. This is the second pole of the season for Logano, his second at Darlington, and the 24th of his career.

"I like winning a lot," Logano said after scoring pole position. "That's what we come here to do. When you fire off in the playoffs you want to have a good start and this pit stall here is so important. It really kind of helped us win the race in the spring. I'm super-proud of this team and continuing the run that we're on. Got to keep it rolling."

At Media Day on Thursday, Logano tagged his team as the favorite to win the championship. "I always feel like I’m the favorite. I race that way. That confidence is very important, and I think we have reason to feel that way. We’ve scored more points (44) than anybody in the last five races. That says a lot about our team, shows where we are about maximizing our days, and that’s what the playoffs are all about. I told my team yesterday that we’re the favorites."

The victory here earlier this year came with a bit of controversy, as Logano shoved race leader William Byron up and into the wall with just two laps remaining, and slid past him on his way to victory.

That move obviously didn’t sit well with Byron, who claims he did nothing wrong to take the lead from Logano. "He’s just an idiot," Byron said after that race. "He does this stuff all the time. I’ve seen it with other guys. He runs everybody over. Didn’t even let us finish. He goes in the corner ten mph faster. Just stupid."

Logano said the move was in retaliation to how Byron raced him moments before. "If someone is going to be willing to do that to you, well, the gloves are off at that point," he said. "I knew if I got back there what I was going to do and what I had to do." Ironically enough, Byron will be starting 3rd tomorrow, directly behind Logano when they see the green flag.

Tyler Reddick will start alongside Byron on Row 2, with Kyle Busch and Austin Cindric lined up in Row 3. Reigning Cup champion Kyle Larson starts 7th and Ryan Blaney rolls off in 9th. The only two non-playoff drivers that qualified inside the top ten were Bubba Wallace (8th) of 23XI Racing and Michael McDowell (10th) of Front Row Motorsports.

The playoffs begin with arguably the most grueling race on the schedule; 500 miles at Darlington Raceway. Aside from the top-seed Chase Elliott, the field of 16 drivers is largely on a level playing field. The points were reset following last week's race at Daytona, and the other 15 drivers are all only separated by 20 points.

With the opening round featuring tracks like Darlington, Kansas, and Bristol, the ability for teams and drivers to limit mistakes will be just as important as winning the race. Those that run into trouble and have a poor finish tomorrow will find themselves in the bottom four, facing elimination and adding to the already intense pressure.

Logano became the first driver to sweep both poles in a season at Darlington since Sterling Marlin back in 1992. Tomorrow, he will try to become the first Ford driver to sweep consecutive races here since Jeff Burton in 1999 with Roush Racing. There will be plenty of challengers over the course of 500 miles.

Denny Hamlin just missed advancing to the final round and the No. 11 Toyota will start 11th tomorrow. The JGR driver has the most wins at Darlington with four, and has led 786 laps. Hamlin led 146 laps in the Southern 500 last year on his way to yet another crown jewel victory. His teammate in the No. 18 Camry has won here before, although that was in 2008. Kyle's last two finishes at Darlington are 35th and 33rd.

Kyle hopes to have his driving plans wrapped up and announced within the next week. The two-time Cup champion has had his fair share of incidents with Logano over the years, but claims there needs to be some give-and-take between drivers in order to reach the end goal.

"Drivers race each other a lot harder in the playoffs because there’s a lot more on the line. You have to pick and choose your battles. Every position is a point, and every point counts as you try to navigate and get through each round. So you just have to know who you are racing and what they have at stake and be smart. You never know what it’s going to take to get to the final four, which is where all of us want to be to have a shot at a championship."

Chase Elliott has 15-point lead in the championship, but he also knows that could disappear in the blink of an eye. Darlington is a place where that could quickly become a reality, but he has great respect for this track. "You have to find the balance of the fast lane being around the wall, and the sun sets in a really awkward place there in turn three right in your face. It becomes hard to see the corner entry."

"It becomes a tale of two races the more I’ve done it and the more I’ve been a part of the race. It almost feels longer than the 600 for some reason. It feels like you’ve been racing for two days. You start in the daytime and end late at night. Balancing the event is probably the most important piece of racing at Darlington. Also, making sure you have a car that’s put together that you haven’t bounced off the wall a bunch for those last 100 miles." Chase finished 5th here earlier this year but qualified in 23rd today.

Kevin Harvick scored a 4th place finish here back in May. Although he starts 18th tomorrow, the Stewart Haas Racing driver has been outstanding here recently. In the last 13 Darlington races, Harvick has three wins and 11 top-fives. He finished 6th and 9th in those other two races, and hopes to record his 14th consecutive top-ten tomorrow.

"Darlington is a place where I enjoy racing and love the challenges that go with it. It’s just you against the track and being able to have that mindset and know that every lap you have to be up on top of the wheel in order to keep yourself from rubbing up against the wall, but also pushing the car hard enough and keeping up with the tire fall-off and understanding all the things that are going on. There are just a lot of moving pieces in this race, but it’s really taxing, mentally."

Bell led a few laps and finished 6th earlier this year. He has a front-row starting spot but the young driver has seen first-hand how quickly things can change here. "The key for us is just to not eliminate ourselves. Darlington is a really easy place to get yourself in trouble. We have the performance capability with this group to make it deep into the playoffs. We just need to execute and limit our mistakes to get the results that we are capable of."

One playoff driver was already handed a significant blow this weekend. The No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet failed pre-qualifying inspection three times this morning. As a result, Daniel Suarez was not able to qualify today, and will have to do a pass-through penalty at the start of the race tomorrow. The team also lost pit selection and car chief Eddie D'Hondt Jr was ejected for the remainder of the weekend.

Suarez still believes they can win this race tomorrow. "We’re in a bit of a hole starting the race, but I’m not too worried about it. It's a very long race. The car actually felt pretty good in practice. With a couple of adjustments, hopefully we can make it a winner. One of the worst things you can do to me is put pressure and to challenge me. I'm going to bounce back. We can definitely have a shot to win the race."

The starting field is set for 500 miles of racing under the lights at Darlington. One playoff driver could vault his way into the Round of 12 with a victory tomorrow night. Coverage for the Cook Out Southern 500 begins at 6 PM ET on USA Network.