Joey Logano in the No. 18 GameStop Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing captured his 17th career NASCAR Nationwide Series pole at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway holding off the Ford Mustangs of Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for the top starting spot.
Logano’s best start at the half-mile oval is second, three times, more recently occurring last August, where he finished second, his best outing in six previous starts in “Thunder Valley.”
Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner wasn’t sure if his Roush Fenway Racing team would even be competing in today’s Ford EcoBoost 300, but a late rally support of marketing partners from Lally Horse Stables, yourracecar.com and Crawdads Classics have allowed the Tennessee-native to compete in the fourth race of the season.
Last year’s Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will line-up inside row number two in third in his No. 6 Cargill / Blackwell Angus Ford Mustang. Roush Fenway Racing officials announced earlier this week that Cargill has leaped aboard the reigning champ’s blue oval for 12 races this year.
Current point’s leader Elliott Sadler will start fourth in his No. 2 OneMain Financial Chevrolet Impala, while Boise Idaho’s Brian Scott, whose looking for some serious redemption after a rocky start to his 2012 season closed out the top-five in the No. 11 Dollar General Toyota Camry.
Kevin Harvick will start sixth followed by 2010 champion Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, highest qualifying rookie Austin Dillon and Justin Allgaier comprised the top-10 starters.
James Buescher will start 11th in a completely sponsorless Chevrolet Impala, other than the Exide Batteries deals on the television panel. Kasey Kahne in another Turner Motorsports entry will start 12th, putting all Steve Turner’s machines neck-n-neck. Mike Bliss was the leading man for TriStar Motorsports in 13th; Cole Whitt led the JR Motorsports brigade in 14th with Ryan Truex in his first race of the year for Joe Gibbs Racing with backing from Grime Boss closed out the top-15.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., quick in practice fumbled a bit in qualifying and will start his No. 5 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet in 16th while Kenny Wallace carrying the logos of Mac Tools for RAB Racing this weekend nabbed 17th with solid qualifying runs by Tayler Malsam (Tri Star Motorsports), Blake Koch (Rick Ware Racing) and Kyle Fowler (Randy Hill Racing) to close out the top-20.
Some notables 21st -30th include: Michael Annett for “The King” Richard Petty in 21st. Johanna Long out-qualified Danica Patrick in her No. 70 ML Motorsports entry to secure 24th. ARCA veteran Jeremy Clements was 25th.
Danica Patrick climbed as high as seventh on the scoring pylon but fell to 27th when it was all said and done in her No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet Impala which is sprinkled with shamrocks to commemorate St. Patrick’s Day, today.
Other notables in today’s 30th annual Ford EcoBoost 300 include Jeffrey Earnhardt in a second Rick Ware Racing entry (No. 15 Sam’s Club Ford Mustang) rolling off 32nd. Jason Bowles, in the MacDonald Motorsports entry was 34th. Jamie Dick in a collaborative with R3 Motorsports generated the 36th quickest lap, followed by Mike Wallace, rookie Joey Gase in 38th and newly crowned father again Eric McClure deep in the pack, starting 40th.
Local native Brad Teague will roll off 41st in a second entry for JD Motorsports with Kevin Lepage for Jay Robinson Racing and J.J. Yeley for GC Motorsports International (formally, Go Canada Racing) trails the rear of the field in 43rd.
46 teams attempted to make the first of two Nationwide races held at BMS this season. David Reutimann in Mike Harmon’s No. 74 Chevrolet, the ageless Morgan Shepherd and Derrike Cope in the No. 73 all failed to earn a berth into today’s lineup.
The race is set for a 2:15 p.m. start time live on ESPN, but Mother Nature is looming in the area and could potentially stall the start of today’s race. Following today’s race, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East tour has their match with Bristol, with qualifying and their 125-lap shootout still on deck.
