Team Penske NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying Report - Las Vegas 1
March 2, 2024
Pennzoil 400 Qualifying
Las Vegas, Nev. - March 2, 2024
The NASCAR Cup Series heads west this weekend for the annual Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Joey Logano secured his 30th-career pole award Saturday afternoon as the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang will lead the field to green in Sunday's Pennzoil 400 for the second-consecutive year. It also marks Logano's third-career pole at Las Vegas, tying him with Kasey Kahne for the most all-time at the 1.5-mile oval.
Austin Cindric also advanced to the final round of qualifying and will start from the third position in the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang. Ryan Blaney will start the 400-mile event from the 15th position in the No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang.
HEAR FROM JOEY: "I didn't expect it when I saw our short run speed in practice. I was like, 'This might not be where we need to be.' We showed that we had great long run speed. Our second run we made an adjustment and went back out and was like, 'Oh, wow. We're really competitive. The car is driving pretty good.' So I felt good about that, but our short run, like fire off, we weren't real fast and we weren't far up the board. And then we barely made it through the first round just by the skin of our teeth. And then being able to make some adjustments. I was proud of what [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] and the guys were able to do to make an adjustment with the car driving closer to perfect and for the second round and being able to put it up here. I really didn't think after the first round we had a chance of putting it on the pole, so I'm proud of the adjustments that we made there. We've got some work to do tonight, for sure, but the first pit stall is nice. Obviously, starting up front for the Pennzoil 400 in the Pennzoil Ford Mustang is huge for our race team. We'll fire off tomorrow and hopefully get a little bit more short run speed and we can make our long runs really good."
LAST SPRING AT LAS VEGAS: All three Team Penske Ford Mustangs started inside the top-10 in the 2023 edition of the Pennzoil 400 as Logano led the field to green from the pole position. Cindric came away with a sixth-place finish that ended with an overtime restart, followed by Blaney in 13th, while Logano was involved in an incident on lap 183 that ended his day early.
MIC'D UP: Following their on-track obligations on Saturday, Logano and Cindric will join the FOX broadcast booth with Adam Alexander as analysts for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas. Coverage of the event begins at 5:00 p.m. ET on FS1.
RACE DAY: Four hundred miles of Cup Series action kick off Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET. Coverage will be carried on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.