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NASCAR Atlanta: Joey Logano tops controversial qualifying day

Joey Logano followed up his Daytona 500 victory last weekend by taking pole position for the second NASCAR Sprint Cup round of the season at Atlanta

The Penske Ford driver edged reigning champion Kevin Harvick by 0.131s in the final segment of qualifying on Friday, while Jamie McMurray and Denny Hamlin completed the second row.

"In pratice we were faster on our second run, so I knew that the grip would stay in the tyres for at least two runs," said Logano.

"I didn't know about the third run, but apparently [the grip stayed] for the third run also.

"It was probably right at the limit, though. Probably the next run would have taken a pretty big jump down."

BIG NAMES FAIL TO RUN

The other major talking point of the session was the fact that 13 cars failed to clear technical inspection before qualifying, including Cup champions Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart.

With this weekend marking the first event running to the new 2015 technical regulations, several teams had to make multiple attempts at passing the new scrutineering process.

NASCAR officials delayed the start of qualifying by 15 minutes to try to allow teams a chance to pass the inspection process and still make it out for the first segment of qualifying, but in the end several missed the cut.

Cup series director Richard Buck said that some teams had to make several visits to inspection because they were "pushing it" on the technical side, but the saga did not go down well with some of the big name drivers to miss out.

"Yes we are pushing the limits, but something is wrong here," said four-time champion Gordon.

"I'm embarrassed for our series right now that this has happened."

Kenseth added that he had "a hard time believing it was the teams" at fault, while Stewart described the day as a "total waste".

"I don't know what to say," said Stewart. "We spent all of our practice working on qualifying, and we didn't even get a chance to make a lap.

"If we would have known this was going to happen, we could have worked on race set-up. It was a total waste of a day at the track."

While NASCAR's start rules mean that the high-profile drivers who missed out are guaranteed to be in the race, Mike Wallace, Matt DiBenedetto, Michael Annett and Reed Sorenson missed out on making the cut.

ATLANTA STARTING GRID

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 28.477s -
2 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.608s 0.131s
3 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.633s 0.156s
4 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.666s 0.189s
5 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.705s 0.228s
6 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.733s 0.256s
7 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.734s 0.257s
8 Sam Hornish Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 28.828s 0.351s
9 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.844s 0.367s
10 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.854s 0.377s
11 A.J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 28.953s 0.476s
12 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 28.965s 0.488s
13 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.826s 0.349s
14 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 28.828s 0.351s
15 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.853s 0.376s
16 Justin Allgaier HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 28.870s 0.393s
17 David Ragan Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.951s 0.474s
18 Danica Patrick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.982s 0.505s
19 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.036s 0.559s
20 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.073s 0.596s
21 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 29.079s 0.602s
22 Brett Moffitt Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 29.080s 0.603s
23 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 29.114s 0.637s
24 Michael McDowell Leavine Family Racing Ford 29.247s 0.770s
25 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 29.254s 0.777s
26 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 29.257s 0.780s
27 Mike Bliss Go FAS Racing Ford 29.279s 0.802s
28 Joe Nemechek Front Row Motorsports Ford 29.305s 0.828s
29 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.348s 0.871s
30 J.J. Yeley BK Racing Toyota 29.460s 0.983s
31 Brendan Gaughan Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 29.471s 0.994s
32 Michael Annett Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29.515s 1.038s
33 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing Ford 30.150s 1.673s
34 Ron Hornaday Jr. The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 30.605s 2.128s
35 Jeb Burton BK Racing Toyota - -
36 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet - -
37 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota - -
38 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet - -
39 Regan Smith Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet - -
40 Tony Stewart Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet - -
41 Cole Whitt Front Row Motorsports Ford - -
42 Alex Bowman Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet - -
43 Landon Cassill Hillman Smith Motorsports Chevrolet - -
44 Mike Wallace Premium Motorsports Chevrolet - -
45 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota - -
46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet - -
47 Reed Sorenson RAB Racing Toyota - -


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