Joey Logano Wins Quaker State 400 Pole in Tiebreaker Over Josh Berry

It doesn't get any closer than that... literally. Joey Logano took his 32nd career NASCAR Cup Series pole position on Friday afternoon in a lightning-delayed qualifying session, which was shortened from two rounds to one. Logano scored the pole by way of a tiebreaker as Josh Berry, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, turned the exact same lap time in the session.

Starting Lineup: Quaker State 400 at Atlanta

A tie for the top spot in a NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session is an extreme rarity, and it's something Logano says he has never been part of before, but he's glad it ended up the way it did.

"Not for the pole, no. Not to start first. I'm glad I'm on this end of it," Logano laughed.

According to Joseph Srigley, the tie for the top lap time in qualifying on Friday between Logano and Berry marks the first time since Talladega in 2007 (David Gilliland and Jeff Gordon) that the pole position was decided by way of a tiebreaker.

Logano's first pole of the 2025 season was won on the back of a 30.979-second (178.960 mph) lap time, and ironically, Berry missing out on his first career pole was by way of the same time and speed.

Ryan Blaney will start the race from the third position, and Austin Cindric made it an all-Team Penske alliance top-four in the qualifying session. The strong run by all four of the Penske-affiliated cars had Logano beaming with pride after qualifying.

"Super proud of Team Penske, Roush-Yates, and Ford, obviously. To keep our Mustangs up there, really shows the ability to repeat from car to car," Logano said. "It's really hard to do. When you see we tied with the 21, and the other cars were all within a couple of hundredths of second. When you think of all of the parts and pieces in a race car and how you can put them together, to make them all end up the same like that is pretty impressive."

Ryan Preece, the driver of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse, was the first driver not affiliated with Team Penske, on the speed chart as he secured the fifth starting spot for Saturday night's race.

Preece will be joined by his RFK Racing teammate and team co-owner Brad Keselowski in Row 3 of the starting grid for the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway.

Cole Custer, Zane Smith, Alex Bowman, and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for this weekend's race, which kicks off NASCAR's inaugural $1 million In-Season Challenge.

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