Logano rockets to pole at Dover - Speedway Digest

Joey Logano picked up where he did last fall by capturing the pole for today’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race. Logano is the defending winner of the Dover 200 at the one-mile Dover International Speedway.

The Penske Racing driver put up a pole-winning time of 23.23 seconds (154.972 mph) in his No. 22 Ford. He has a clear view of the track come race time.

Points leader Chase Elliott was the quickest during the first round, but couldn’t knock off Logano for the top spot in round two. This is Elliot’s fifth front-row start of the season. His JR Motorsports teammate, Regan Smith, qualified eighth at 152.336 mph. Smith sits 20 points behind Elliott in the championship battle heading into Dover.

The Richard Childress Racing (RCR) momentum continued, as all four cars made it to the final round of qualifying. Rookie contender Ty Dillon led the way for RCR in the third spot (153.355 mph), while Brian Scott (seventh) and Cale Conley (ninth) were also in the top 10. Last week’s winner Brendan Gaughan will start12th (151.464 mph).

Scott and Trevor Bayne are both winless on the NNS season so far in 2014. Bayne finished runner-up to Kyle Busch at Dover last time out in May. He just missed the cut in advancing by posting the 13^th quickest speed (151.134 mph). One Roush-Fenway Racing driver got into the final round, and that was Chris Buescher qualifying sixth (152.821 mph) for the Dover 200.

Justin Boston slotted in the 11^th spot in his second career NNS start. Boston finished ninth in his debut last weekend at Kentucky Speedway.

Some notables to miss the second round were: Aric Almriola, Dylan Kwasniewski, Ryan Reed and Alex Bowman. Almriola is running the NNS race to gain more experience for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race and try to move into the Contender round in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Bowman is running the No. 80 Toyota for Hattori Racing and will make his first NNS start since Phoenix last November.

Milka Duno attempted to make her NNS debut and was unsuccessful in doing so by posting the slowest time in the 42 cars that tried to make the race. Duno also attempted Bristol for RAB Racing in her No. 29 Toyota. She and Mike Harmon were the two drivers to miss the race.

The green flag for the Dover 200 will drop shortly after 3:30 p.m. and will be shown live on ESPN.

Dover 200 starting lineup Top 10

#22 Joey Logano
#9 Chase Elliott
#3 Ty Dillon
#42 Kyle Larson
#54 Kyle Busch
#60 Chris Buescher
#2 Brian Scott
#7 Regan Smith
#33 Cale Conley
#11 Elliott Sadler

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Kyle Magda

Currently, I’m a journalism student in college who enjoys the sport of racing. I've been following NASCAR in-depth since 2001.Along with my love of racing, I’m also into baseball, football (college & pro), and college basketball.I also have my own website, The Life of Kyle, where I write about various topics.And to get my feet wet into radio, I have my own show called Overdrive. I started it with my friend. Since we can’t record together most of the time, we have our own versions. I cover NASCAR and ARCA, and he takes Formula One and IndyCar.Not forgetting to mention, I have my own YouTube channel as well.As for race tracks, I’ve gone to races at Pocono, Watkins Glen, Daytona, Dover, Loudon and a few local short tracks as well. I hope to cross the Indianapolis 500 off my list in the future. I hope to become a man of many hats.