Joey Logano earned the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway Gateway, the Enjoy Illinois 300, after he and Blaney topped practice.
MADISON, Ill. -- The pole for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway Gateway was up in the air until Joey Logano came along.
Logano ran a lap of 32.817 seconds, running four tenths faster than provisional polesitter Carson Hocevar and more than two tenths faster than any other driver who came close.
Kyle Larson came the closest but still lost the pole to Logano in the largest margin of victory for the pole since 2017.
In September 2017 at Chicagoland Speedway, Kyle Busch beat Denny Hamlin for the pole by 0.277 seconds. The previous largest margin of victory for the pole this season was Shane van Gisbergen beating Michael McDowell at Watkins Glen by 0.259 seconds.
Chase drivers swept the top-10 spots with Logano, Larson, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Carson Hocevar, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin.
The other Chase drivers started as follows: Austin Cindric (13th), Ryan Preece (14th), Daniel Suarez (15th), Tyler Reddick (18th), Chris Buescher (21st) and William Byron (24th).
Although Preece, Suarez, Reddick and Byron didn't start in the top-10, they were among the top-11 drivers on the overall practice chart.
Penske Powers Practice at Gateway
In practice, Penske needed to make a statement at WWT Raceway and they did it. Blaney and Logano topped the overall practice chart and the 10-lap average chart.
Quasi-teammate Josh Berry was third overall and fifth on the 10-lap average but will start closer to Penske driver Austin Cindric on Sunday. Cindric was 13th overall and sixth on the 10-lap average.
Penske has won two of the five Cup Series races run at Gateway with Joey Logano (2022) and Austin Cindric (2024).
Not wanting to let the headlines stop for him and Spire Motorsports, Carson Hocevar was sixth overall and third on the 10-lap average in practice. Teammate Daniel Suarez had his contribution, running seventh overall and 12th on the 10-lap average (of 36 drivers).
Toyota will benefit from five of its Chase cars starting in the top-10. However, only Tyler Reddick was top-10 overall in practice (fifth) while the top-10 in the 10-lap average only included Christopher Bell (fourth) and Reddick (seventh).
On the 10-lap average, Hamlin was 15th, Wallace was 23rd, Briscoe was 24th and Gibbs was 25th.
The Enjoy Illinois 300 is set to go green just after 3 p.m. ET on USA, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and Motor Racing Network affiliates.
