Joey Logano wins the pole for NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — The new style of qualifying for NASCAR Sprint Cup races is exciting — too exciting in view of some drivers.

Joey Logano set a track qualifying record Friday to win the pole position for Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where NASCAR for the first time used a three-round version of its new “knockout” style of qualifying.

But a byproduct of the format is that drivers circled the 1.5-mile speedway Friday at vastly different speeds, setting up a possibly dangerous situation if the cars collided.

While some drivers approached 200 mph while setting their qualifying laps, others were traveling less than half that speed on the track’s inside apron to cool their engines before making another qualifying run.

“I really hope that NASCAR looks at that,” said Clint Bowyer, who qualified third in his No. 15 Toyota. “It’s nerve-racking.”

Brian Vickers, who qualified ninth, said it was “the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done in a race car.”

Logano agreed “it gets crazy out there” but said “it’s way cooler than the old style of qualifying” that involved a single car circling the track at a time.

Logano captured the first starting spot with a lap of 193.278 mph in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford, breaking the previous qualifying record of 190.456 mph by Kasey Kahne in 2012.

Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski qualified second, giving Penske the front row for the second consecutive week. Keselowski won the pole last weekend in Phoenix and Logano started second.

Under NASCAR’s new format, tracks 1.25 miles and longer have three elimination sessions for qualifying and tracks shorter than 1.25 miles have two sessions.

So on Friday, the entire 43-car field had a 25-minute window to post qualifying times in the first round, and the 24 fastest drivers then advanced to a 10-minute second round.

The 12 fastest drivers in the second round then moved to the final, five-minute session in which Logano set his pole-winning lap.

During qualifying, crews tape up the cars’ air intakes to achieve the maximum “downforce” that makes the cars go faster.

But the maneuver also makes the cars’ engines very hot. That’s why the drivers cruise around at reduced speeds to cool the engines before making their next qualifying run.

Some drivers have suggested that NASCAR can ease the danger by allowing crews to use external devices that would cool the engines while the cars are on pit road.

Among the drivers who advanced to the second session but didn’t reach the final session included Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. (who starts 14th Sunday); Kevin Harvick (16th), who won last weekend’s race in Phoenix; Kyle Busch (20th); and Tony Stewart (24th).

Danica Patrick was 10th in the first round but also wasn’t fast enough in the second session to reach the final round. She’ll start 22nd.

Among the drivers who were too slow to advance past the first session were defending race winner Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Greg Biffle.

james.peltz@latimes.com

Twitter: @PeltzLATimes