MADISON, Ill.—With a spectacular lap late in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session, Joey Logano won the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway by a wide margin.

The only competitor in 36-driver field to crack the 33-second barrier, Logano covered the 1.25-mile distance in 32.817 seconds (137.124 mph) to claim the top starting spot for the second race in the Cup Series Chase (3 p.m. ET Sunday on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The Busch Light Pole Award was the second of the season for Logano, who won the inaugural Cup Series race at WWTR in 2022. In winning his first pole at the track and the 35th of his career, Logano beat second-place qualifier Kyle Larson (135.980 mph) by 0.276 seconds.

“Honestly, I feel like I’ve had good cars here for qualifying—I just have always screwed up Turn 1,” said Logano, who is eighth in the Chase standings, 72 points out of the lead. “It’s nice to have a good clean lap.

“It’s in your head, right? Before you go out because you’ve had four qualifying sessions before where you’ve always screwed up Turn 1. I’ve overdriven it. I’ve underdriven it because of that.

“I hit it right this time, so that part was good. I was able to get through it pretty well and have a pretty solid (Turns) 3 and 4, and the car did what it needed to do. The car has got some raw speed in it, which is very encouraging for (Sunday).”

Logano is the only driver in the field who has finished in the top five in each of the four previous races at Gateway.

Chase drivers claimed the top 10 positions during time trials, with Logano’s Team Penske Teammate, Ryan Blaney, qualifying third at 135.898 mph and last Sunday’s Darlington winner, Christopher Bell, earning the fourth spot on the grid at 135.767 mph.

Chase Briscoe was fifth fastest, followed by Carson Hocevar, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and series leader Denny Hamlin, who improved significantly from his 30th position on the speed chart during practice earlier in the day.

The remaining six Chase drivers qualified as follows: Austin Cindric 13th, Ryan Preece 14th, Daniel Suarez 15th, Tyler Reddick 18th, Chris Buescher 21st and William Byron 24th. Buescher’s No. 17 Ford failed inspection twice, resulting in the ejection of crew chief Joshua Sisco and the loss of pit selection for Sunday’s race.

Qualifying Results

Pos
No.
Driver
Team
Time
Speed

1
22
Joey Logano (C)
Shell Pennzoil Ford
32.817
137.124

2
5
Kyle Larson (C)
HendrickCars.com Chevrolet
33.093
135.980

3
12
Ryan Blaney (C)
Menards/ATLAS Designer Shingles Ford
33.113
135.898

4
20
Christopher Bell (C)
Rheem Toyota
33.145
135.767

5
19
Chase Briscoe (C)
Bass Pro Shops Toyota
33.199
135.546

6
77
Carson Hocevar (C)
Spectrum Chevrolet
33.236
135.395

7
23
Bubba Wallace (C)
Hardee’s Toyota
33.246
135.355

8
9
Chase Elliott (C)
Llumar Chevrolet
33.259
135.302

9
54
Ty Gibbs (C)
Monster Energy Toyota
33.261
135.294

10
11
Denny Hamlin (C)
King’s Hawaiian Cinnamon Bites Toyota
33.312
135.086

11
48
Alex Bowman
Ally Chevrolet
33.407
134.702

12
38
Zane Smith
Speedy Cash Ford
33.420
134.650

13
2
Austin Cindric (C)
Freightliner Ford
33.441
134.565

14
60
Ryan Preece (C)
Kroger/International Delight Ford
33.487
134.381

15
7
Daniel Suarez (C)
Freeway Insurance Chevrolet
33.492
134.360

16
21
Josh Berry
DEX Ford
33.503
134.316

17
16
AJ Allmendinger
Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet
33.547
134.140

18
45
Tyler Reddick (C)
Comparion Insurance Toyota
33.557
134.100

19
88
Connor Zilisch #
Very Good Ventures Chevrolet
33.572
134.040

20
1
Ross Chastain
Busch Light Chevrolet
33.583
133.996

21
17
Chris Buescher (C)
Body Guard by Fastenal Ford
33.607
133.901

22
3
Austin Dillon
Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Deer Season XP Chevrolet
33.624
133.833

23
6
Brad Keselowski
Castrol Ford
33.689
133.575

24
24
William Byron (C)
Phorm Energy Chevrolet
33.700
133.531

25
43
Erik Jones
Dollar Tree Toyota
33.713
133.480

26
41
Cole Custer
Haas/Bonanza Wines Chevrolet
33.725
133.432

27
33
Austin Hill(i)
Lucas Oil Chevrolet
33.768
133.262

28
42
John Hunter Nemechek
Dollar Tree Toyota
33.810
133.097

29
71
Michael McDowell
Delaware Life Chevrolet
33.878
132.830

30
51
Cody Ware
Rocket Doctor Chevrolet
33.926
132.642

31
4
Noah Gragson
Long John Silver’s Ford
33.934
132.610

32
10
Ty Dillon
Patriot Mobile Chevrolet
33.943
132.575

33
35
Riley Herbst
FRE Nicotine Pouches Toyota
34.062
132.112

34
34
Todd Gilliland
Ruedebusch Development & Construction Inc. Ford
34.065
132.100

35
97
Shane Van Gisbergen
SuperFile Chevrolet
34.186
131.633

36
47
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Clemco Chevrolet
34.215
131.521