DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Joey Logano gave Ford its first Daytona 500 pole in more than a decade Wednesday night at Daytona International Speedway.
He will be joined on the front row by fellow Ford driver Michael McDowell. Logano qualified at 181.947 mph. McDowell’s lap was 181.686 mph.
“There is more pride taken as a team for winning the Daytona 500 pole than any other pole in the season because of the amount of effort that goes in all winter long working on this race car,” Logano said.
Ford’s last Daytona 500 pole was 2012. Carl Edwards took the top spot in qualifying and was joined on the front row by teammate Greg Biffle.
This is Logano’s first Daytona 500 pole and McDowell’s first Daytona 500 front row start. It comes in the first qualifying event for the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse, which is making its debut this season.
Wednesday’s qualifying only locked in the Daytona 500 front row and two of the six non-chartered cars.
Anthony Alfredo and David Ragan each secured starting spots for non-chartered cars.
The starting lineup will be set by Thursday’s two qualifying races.
MORE: Starting lineup for first qualifying race
MORE: Starting lineup for second qualifying race
This is only the second time in the last 10 years a Hendrick Motorsports car did not win the pole. This is the first time since 2014 that Hendrick Motorsports did not have a car start on the front row.
Alex Bowman’s record stretch of six consecutive front row starting spots for the Daytona 500 ended Wednesday. He was 17th in qualifying and the only Hendrick Motorsports car not to advance to advance to the final round of qualifying.
No Toyotas qualified in the top 20. Erik Jones was 22nd to lead that group.
Two-time Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson, a co-owner of Legacy Motor Club, will have to earn a starting spot via Thursday night’s qualifying races since he was not faster than Alfredo or Ragan.
Alfredo is driving for Beard Motorsports, which has one full-time employee. Ragan is driving a third car for RFK Racing. This will be Alfredo’s second Daytona 500 start and Ragan’s 17th Daytona 500.
“Initially I thought, ‘Man, we’re cutting this way too close,’” Ragan said. “I felt like we’d have a really fast race car, and we do. I really wasn’t expecting that lap from Anthony. That was a great lap for him and that team. Congratulations to those guys.”
Said Alfredo: “This is insane. We had just talked about any possible scenario we might find ourselves in today, tomorrow and obviously Sunday. But to make it to Sunday is such a challenge with such a competitive field of open cars and drivers behind the wheel, and I am just really thankful for the Beard family to give me this opportunity.”
NASCAR announced that the cars of Bowman and Tyler Reddick failed pre-qualifying inspection twice. The car chief for each team were ejected for Thursday’s qualifying races. Both cars will lose pit selection for their qualifying race.
