Logano's picture perfect lap wins Bristol pole

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kurt Busch called Joey Logano's pole-winning lap Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway "near perfect."

That matches Logano's near perfect turnaround from a year ago.

Logano punctuated his sophomore season surge in Sprint Cup by earning his first career pole for Sunday's Food City 500 at one of the tracks on which he struggled most during his rookie year.

In two appearances last season at Bristol in the Cup series, Logano finished 38th in the spring with help from a blown engine and 34th in the fall, when he wrecked on Lap 11 of the 500-lap race.

"To get your first pole – I never thought it would come here," Logano said. "This is one of my tougher race tracks and I thought I really sucked here."

Entering the Bristol race last season, Logano had finished 26th or worse in three of his first four races. This season, he has two top-10 finishes in four races and is 14th in the series standings, best among Joe Gibbs Racing's three drivers.

"I think for me it's just experience, that's the biggest thing. Coming to these places a few times, knowing what I want in the race car," Logano said of his turnaround this season.

"Me and Zippy (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief) work great together. That's what really changed us around. I think it just took us a long time to figure it out. (We) are definitely getting along the best we ever have."

Logano's buzzword for the weekend is "uneventful," which he has repeated frequently in discussing in hope for the weekend.

"I walked into this race track and I said I want an uneventful race. Just a race where we can go through without banging fenders all during the race and get through this thing, have a good starting position," he said.

"Having the first pit stall – that's key, so to have that stuff for us is a really good thing here."

Logano's lap (124.630 mph) was nearly a mile-an-hour-faster than Busch (123.857 mph) but Busch joked he was happy to provide another driver his career-first pole by finishing second.

"I wasn't sure we were going to run as good as we did because the car was a little loose," Busch said. "I think I scrubbed some speed coming off Turn 4. Otherwise, we may have grabbed a pole."

Busch himself has been on a role of late, winning at Atlanta on March 7 and is 10th in the series standings.

"We are proud of ourselves of being first in class against the Hendrick guys. We have our setups, Steve Addington (crew chief) has his setups and we're realizing that there's two ways to skin this cat," Busch said.

"So, we're trying to balance the best ideas that we're use to at Penske Racing and what Steve Addington is used to."

Addington served nearly two seasons as crew chief for Kurt's younger brother, Kyle Busch, before moving to Penske in the offseason.

Dave Blaney qualified third, reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson was fourth and Jeff Gordon fifth. Series points leader Kevin Harvick will line up 33rd.

Two drivers – Mike Bliss and Max Papis – failed to make the 43-car field.