Logano, the next-to-last car to go out in the final round of qualifying, won the pole for Sunday’s Cup race at Atlanta with an average lap speed of 177.374 mph edging his Penske teammate Austin Cindric (177.340 mph).
Fellow Penske driver Ryan Blaney ended up third-fastest (177.215 mph), giving Penske a 1-2-3 start for the second time in team history.
In all, Ford drivers claimed the top eight starting positions, the first time that’s happened since Fords swept the top 10 starting spots in the 1965 Cup race at Beltsville, Md.
“It’s nice, we’ll try to keep that (starting position) the whole time. Obviously, track position matters but handling is also going to matter,” said Logano, who also won the pole last weekend at Las Vegas but wrecked out of the race and finished last.
“Nobody knows what they got for handling without any practice. We definitely got the speed in our race car, Hopefully, we can maintain this track position. Obviously, we’ll get a good pit stall.
“We’ll do all we can to keep it up front.”
Brad Keselowski qualified fourth and Aric Almirola rounded out the top-five.
Completing the top-10 starters were Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell.
Bell spun out on his qualifying attempt but did not hit the wall. If the team has to make any significant adjustments to the car, Bell will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.
A big spin for Christopher Bell during Atlanta qualifying. https://t.co/4SdIN1v7Y9 pic.twitter.com/b2aNap9Tlr
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 18, 2023
Round 1
Ford cars dominated the first round of qualifying with Blaney leading the way with an average lap speed of 177.261 mph.
Logano was second-fastest (176.853 mph) and Almirola was third (176.825 mph). Keselowski was fourth and Buescher fifth as Fords swept the top-five.
Also advancing to the final round were Briscoe, Bell, Larson, Cindric and Harvick.
Bell, in a Toyota, and Larson, in a Chevrolet, were the only non-Fords to move on to the final round of qualifying.
Among those who did not advance were William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez.
The first car out, B.J. McLeod, spun off Turn 4 to bring the first round briefly under caution.
.@bjmcleod78 goes around to start #NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at @ATLMotorSpdwy. pic.twitter.com/BEK1cWjutO
— Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) March 18, 2023
NASCAR sent track workers out to evaluate the track but did not find any issues.
| Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 |  Joey Logano |
Ford | 1 | 31.256 | 177.374 | |||
| 2 | 2 | Austin Cindric |
Ford | 1 | 31.262 | 0.006 | 0.006 | 177.340 | |
| 3 | 12 | Ryan Blaney |
Ford | 1 | 31.284 | 0.028 | 0.022 | 177.215 | |
| 4 | 6 | Brad Keselowski |
Ford | 1 | 31.323 | 0.067 | 0.039 | 176.995 | |
| 5 | 10 | Aric Almirola |
Ford | 1 | 31.324 | 0.068 | 0.001 | 176.989 | |
| 6 | 4 | Kevin Harvick |
Ford | 1 | 31.363 | 0.107 | 0.039 | 176.769 | |
| 7 | 17 | Chris Buescher |
Ford | 1 | 31.367 | 0.111 | 0.004 | 176.746 | |
| 8 | 14 | Chase Briscoe |
Ford | 1 | 31.396 | 0.140 | 0.029 | 176.583 | |
| 9 | 5 | Kyle Larson |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.462 | 0.206 | 0.066 | 176.213 | |
| 10 | 20 | Christopher Bell |
Toyota |
| 11 | 24 | William Byron |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.544 | 0.268 | 0.016 | 175.755 | |
| 12 | 34 | Michael McDowell |
Ford | 1 | 31.545 | 0.269 | 0.001 | 175.749 | |
| 13 | 3 | Austin Dillon |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.548 | 0.272 | 0.003 | 175.732 | |
| 14 | 48 | Alex Bowman |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.554 | 0.278 | 0.006 | 175.699 | |
| 15 | 11 | Denny Hamlin |
Toyota | 1 | 31.554 | 0.278 | 0.000 | 175.699 | |
| 16 | 45 | Tyler Reddick |
Toyota | 1 | 31.574 | 0.298 | 0.020 | 175.588 | |
| 17 | 8 | Kyle Busch |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.583 | 0.307 | 0.009 | 175.537 | |
| 18 | 1 | Ross Chastain |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.597 | 0.321 | 0.014 | 175.460 | |
| 19 | 23 | Bubba Wallace |
Toyota | 1 | 31.636 | 0.360 | 0.039 | 175.243 | |
| 20 | 31 | Justin Haley |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.642 | 0.366 | 0.006 | 175.210 | |
| 21 | 9 | Josh Berry | Chevrolet | 1 | 31.662 | 0.386 | 0.020 | 175.099 | |
| 22 | 42 | Noah Gragson |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.680 | 0.404 | 0.018 | 175.000 | |
| 23 | 38 | Todd Gilliland |
Ford | 1 | 31.696 | 0.420 | 0.016 | 174.912 | |
| 24 | 41 | Ryan Preece |
Ford | 1 | 31.801 | 0.525 | 0.105 | 174.334 | |
| 25 | 77 | Ty Dillon |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.835 | 0.559 | 0.034 | 174.148 | |
| 26 | 99 |  Daniel Suarez |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.835 | 0.559 | 0.000 | 174.148 | |
| 27 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.837 | 0.561 | 0.002 | 174.137 | |
| 28 | 43 | Erik Jones |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.853 | 0.577 | 0.016 | 174.050 | |
| 29 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. |
Toyota | 1 | 31.859 | 0.583 | 0.006 | 174.017 | |
| 30 | 16 | A.J. Allmendinger |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.939 | 0.663 | 0.080 | 173.581 | |
| 31 | 7 | Corey Lajoie |
Chevrolet | 1 | 31.945 | 0.669 | 0.006 | 173.548 | |
| 32 | 51 | Cody Ware |
Ford | 1 | 32.064 | 0.788 | 0.119 | 172.904 | |
| 33 | 21 | Harrison Burton |
Ford | 1 | 32.340 | 1.064 | 0.276 | 171.429 | |
| 34 | 15 | J.J. Yeley |
Ford | 1 | 32.559 | 1.283 | 0.219 | 170.275 | |
| 35 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Toyota | 1 | 34.582 | 3.306 | 2.023 | 160.315 | |
| 36 | 78 | B.J. McLeod |
Chevrolet |
