Martinsville NASCAR: Joey Logano takes pole for Penske after delay

Penske's Daytona 500 winner Logano remained in the top 10 in all three segments of qualifying, and delivered a lap of 19.232 seconds to head off the rapid Richard Childress Chevrolet of Ryan Newman, who had topped practice earlier in the day.

Behind Newman was Martin Truex Jr; the Furniture Row man hasn't finished outside the top 10 yet this season in an impressive start.

Truex shares row two with the only other repeat pole winner in 2015, Jeff Gordon.

Eight-time Martinsville winner Jimmie Johnson managed fifth, ahead of the sole Stewart-Haas entry in the top 12 shootout, Tony Stewart, who is looking to rebound from a terrible start to the year so far.

Stewart's stablemates Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch - who fought for victory last week at Fontana - could only manage 17th and 26th respectively.

A late red flag in the first session made it difficult for anyone outside the 25th placed cut-off to improve on their times, with only three minutes to find a clean lap on the congested 0.5-mile 'paperclip'.

Missing out on the second instalment was Cup debutant Chase Elliott. The threat of rain plunged Elliott's participation in Sunday's race into doubt, as the 19-year-old was not guaranteed a starting spot and needed to qualify on pace.

Luckily the rain held off and Elliott - the heir apparent to the retiring Gordon - managed 27th on the grid for the first of his five Cup races for Hendrick Motorsports in 2015.

STARTING GRID:

Qualifying format: Knockout system, round 1 sets 25th back, round 2 sets 13th-24th, round 3 sets top 12.

Only 43 cars can start, non-qualifiers decided by a mixture of previous year's championship standings, past champions' allowances and qualifying times.