Just minutes after his team was (apparently) part of the reason that Jeff Gordon was added as a 13th driver to the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Joey Logano was in the headlines again. However this time, it didn't have any NASCAR probation involved.
Logano won the pole for Sunday's Geico 400 at Chicagoland, the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. It's Logano's second pole of the season -- the first came at Michigan, where he recorded his first win of 2013.
A win on Sunday would set Logano on the course his teammate Brad Keselowski followed to the championship last season. In 2012, Keselowski won the first race of the Chase en route to the title. This year, Keselowski missed out on the Chase -- no, (we think) he won't be added in before Sunday's race, but on Sunday, he'll start second behind Logano.
Logano and team were embroiled in som mid-week controversy when radio communications from David Gilliland's scanner were revealed to have a discussion that involved Gilliland moving over for Logano in the late laps to ensure that Logano made the Chase. Logano executed that pass with three laps left, and finished a position ahead of Gilliland and one point ahead of Jeff Gordon for the final top 10 Chase spot. Though, as we've noted before and will undoubtedly note again, had Logano not passed Gilliland, he would have gotten 10th over Gordon by virtue of tiebreaker.
Want to read a good takedown of the situation? Check out Jay Busbee's post if you're not sick of what's happened in NASCAR over the past week. It's enough to make your head spin more times than watching a Bristol race in fast-forward.
Anyway, back to qualifying, because that's what this post is supposed to be about. The other Chase drivers qualified as follows: Matt Kenseth 10th, Kyle Busch 12th, Jimmie Johnson 9th, Kevin Harvick 17th, Carl Edwards 8th, Greg Biffle 7th, Clint Bowyer 24th, Ryan Newman 20th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18th, Kurt Busch 16th, Kasey Kahne 4th and BONUS DRIVER Jeff Gordon was 6th.
