There will be 16 grid spots separating the Championship 4 when the green flag waves for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series title-decider at Phoenix, but all of them feel good about their chances.
“I do,” said Team Penske’s Joey Logano when asked if he felt like the championship was his for the taking. “I feel like our car is strong. We did a good job in qualifying, feel strong about our team, and we feel really solid about these type of pressure situations. We’re just executing our plan. We’ve had two weeks to put our plan together; just have to execute it the best we can now.”
Logano’s confidence in the homework the No. 22 team has done ahead of this weekend was reinforced by his being the highest qualifier among the title contenders. He will roll off from second on the grid after being edged out by Martin Truex Jr.
“I’ve said all week, I feel like we’ve had the upper hand,” he said. “I feel like we’re in a great spot. Obviously a lot of things can happen from here, but when you look at what we accomplished today, getting a solid starting spot, that’s something we should be proud of, but it’s also exactly what we were trying to do. We feel confident. This race team’s been doing this a long, long time. We feel solid about where we’re at. When you prepare for what’s coming your way, it’s easy to feel confident.”
Logano is chasing his third Cup Series crown, while Penske teammate Ryan Blaney is looking to add a second to the one he earned last year. Blaney triumphed last year from 15th on the grid – an experience that he can lean on this time around after qualifying the No. 12 Ford 17th.
“Our lap didn’t go well, just got really free into Turn 1 and kind of ruined it all and couldn’t really make it back up,” Blaney said. “I was surprised, honestly, that it ran what it did for how loose I got.
“I think the car is pretty good. Still nice to have a decent pit stall and things like that. We’ll just take it how we can get it tomorrow; try to work through the first handful of laps and then start marching forwards. Pretty similar to last year – hopefully it will end the same and we can charge through the field. I think the race car is good enough to where hopefully we can make that happen.”
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Starting roughly halfway between the two title-contending Penske entries are their two rivals, led by Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron in eighth.
“I think we do [have a car that’s good enough to win],” he said. “It sucks; just didn’t quite get the second lap I wanted to in the second (qualifying) round, so bummed about that. I feel really good about our race car, getting first pit pick, which is huge. Excited about all those things, and just [have to] put together a good start to the race. It’s such a long race; it’s just going to be about getting to the finish and having what you need there.”
Tyler Reddick will be immediately behind him on the starting grid after qualifying the No. 45 23XI Toyota in 10th. He endured the most nerve-wracking trip through qualifying of the four contenders after narrowly hanging on to a top five spot in the opening round.
“Round one, obviously we just barely got in; did just enough there,” he said. “That second run, I wasn’t expecting it to lose that much lap time from round one, and when you’re first car out you’re kind of going off what you need to do, and the last thing I thought was that it would lose that much across the board. Definitely wish we could have had that one back.
“We’re right there with William; Joey’s a little further ahead obviously, but we had a pretty solid day.”
Reddick came into qualifying off the back of a disappointing run in practice on Friday, but is optimistic that the team is gotten the car to where it needs to be.
“There were moments in practice where our car was doing what we wanted it to do,” he said. “Just across the board, the fire-off speed wasn’t really there. We’ve been talking about it and coming up with a plan for Sunday. Going into the race, I have a good sense of direction for what I need to be focused on, and what we as a team need to keep up with on the race car.”