500 winner Joey Logano wins pole in Atlanta

Joey Logano carries over the momentum of his Daytona 500 victory to Atlanta

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Joey Logano's week just keeps getting better as the defending Daytona 500 winner took the pole for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway after topping Friday night's chaotic qualifying session that saw only 34 cars take to the track to post a qualifying time.

Logano's lap of 22.447 seconds (194.683 mph) in the no. 22 Ford was enough to knock Kevin Harvick off the top spot for his ninth-career Coors Light Pole Award.

Harvick held on for second with a lap of 28.608 (193.792), followed by Jamie McMurray, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards

Logano’s pole is his career-best start ever at Atlanta, where he used to race Legends cars with David Ragan and Reed Sorenson.

“It’s been an amazing few weeks if you think about the Daytona 500 and everything that comes along with that, and then coming down here to Atlanta and starting first is special, especially for me here at this race track," said Logano. “I remember sitting in the corner and watching drivers up here talking about their qualifying run and racing Legends cars out front here for years, so there are a lot of memories here.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]"Hopefully, we’ll finish where we start. Everything is going well and we’re just trying to keep the old train rolling here. It’s going great and we’ll see what happens on Sunday."

Friday’s opening round only saw 34 of the 47 entrants making onto the track before the 15-minute session ended after several teams failed to make to through pre-qualifying inspection – in some cases presenting their cars through inspection three times.

Among the drivers who weren’t able to make it through tech were Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart.

Gordon, returning to the track where he made his Sprint Cup debut in 1992, ended up with his worst Atlanta starting spot since 1997, rolling off 35th.

“This is absolutely embarrassing," said Gordon. “I just feel so bad for my guys and for 3M. To not even get a chance to go out on the race track is ridiculous. I know the fans deserve an apology. I don’t know how many cars there must be back here (the garage) that never even got a chance to go on the track.

“There is something wrong. Or there is something wrong with the system. Or there is something wrong with the amount of time they allot to get through. There is no way this many good cars, talented people that they can't figure out how to get these cars through inspection. These guys are too smart. Yes we are pushing limits, but there is something wrong here. I'm embarrassed; I'm embarrassed for our series right now that this just happened."

Mike Wallace, Matt DiBenedetto, Michael Annett and Reed Sorenson also weren’t able to clear inspection and failed to qualify for Sunday’s race, having never logged a lap in qualifying.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]The heart of the issue that caused the chaos in the garage appeared to be the new rules package that makes its season debut this weekend at Atlanta. Among the changes this season were aero and weight changes that had teams scrambling throughout the afternoon to get their cars within NASCAR tolerances.

Prior to the start of the session, NASCAR pushed qualifying back by a half hour, but even that it wasn’t enough time for all the teams to clear inspection.

According to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Director Richard Buck, several of the teams were caught “pushing the limits" with issues like camber, toe and axle skew, trying to find as much grip as possible.

“We saw different areas where teams were pushing the limits," said Buck. “We’ve got a new rules package and with grip being so important here, teams were trying to get every bit (of grip) that can.

“We saw areas where the teams were looking for every last little bit of mechanical grip. Obviously, (the teams) have given up downforce with the new (rules) package, and they’re pushing the limits. There’s a bunch of parameters mechanically that we measure that the teams can adjust and manipulate to get more grip, and that’s where they were really pushing the edges."

Buck said the inspection process gave everyone a fair opportunity to get through, but ultimately it was teams responsibility to come through inspection “to the limit"

“We’ll look at the (inspection) process and try to understand it," said Buck. “We’ll look it with a fine microscope, we’ll get input from the teams and if down the road we see the need, we’ll make an adjustment."

Also missing the field for Sunday’s race was Travis Kvapil, whose team was forced to withdraw after their hauler carrying their only racecar was stolen from the parking lot of an Atlanta-area hotel early Friday morning.

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