{"id":60741,"date":"2026-09-12T17:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T22:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=60741"},"modified":"2026-09-14T17:19:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T22:19:31","slug":"joey-logano-charges-to-pole-position-for-nascar-cup-chase-race-at-world-wide-technology-raceway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/12\/joey-logano-charges-to-pole-position-for-nascar-cup-chase-race-at-world-wide-technology-raceway\/","title":{"rendered":"Joey Logano charges to pole position for NASCAR Cup Chase race at World Wide Technology Raceway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

MADISON, Ill.\u2014With a spectacular lap late in Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session, Joey Logano won the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday\u2019s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway by a wide margin.<\/p>\n

\"\"

MADISON, ILLINOIS – SEPTEMBER 12: Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at WWT Raceway on September 12, 2026 in Madison, Illinois. (Photo by Amy Kontras\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

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).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I feel like I\u2019ve had good cars here for qualifying\u2014I just have always screwed up Turn 1,\u201d said Logano, who is eighth in the Chase standings, 72 points out of the lead. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have a good clean lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in your head, right? Before you go out because you\u2019ve had four qualifying sessions before where you\u2019ve always screwed up Turn 1. I\u2019ve overdriven it. I\u2019ve underdriven it because of that.<\/p>\n

\"\"

MADISON, ILLINOIS – SEPTEMBER 12: Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at WWT Raceway on September 12, 2026 in Madison, Illinois. (Photo by Amy Kontras\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI 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).\u201d<\/p>\n

Logano is the only driver in the field who has finished in the top five in each of the four previous races at Gateway.<\/p>\n

Chase drivers claimed the top 10 positions during time trials, with Logano\u2019s Team Penske Teammate, Ryan Blaney, qualifying third at 135.898 mph and last Sunday\u2019s Darlington winner, Christopher Bell, earning the fourth spot on the grid at 135.767 mph.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s No. 17 Ford failed inspection twice, resulting in the ejection of crew chief Joshua Sisco and the loss of pit selection for Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Interview: Busch Light Pole Award Winner Joey Logano (No. 22 Team Penske Ford)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MADISON, Ill.\u2014With a spectacular lap late in Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session, Joey Logano won the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":60738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[154,16,784],"class_list":["post-60741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-joey-logano","tag-nascar","tag-world-wide-technology-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fNH","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2294932266-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60741"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60783,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60741\/revisions\/60783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}