Joe Logano earns Sprint Cup pole; Chase Elliott wins Xfinity Series race

Joey Logano won the pole Friday for the NASCAR Sprint Cup regular-season finale Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.

Logano turned a lap a 126.470 mph to emerge from the final 12 drivers in the knockout qualifying format.

He edged Matt Kenseth, whose best lap came at 126.357 mph, to win his fifth pole of the season.

“It’s nice to have a good starting spot here,” Logano said. “Obviously, if you’re up front you can take care of your tires a little better through the first part of the race. That should help us along with a good pit stall.”

Logano, who is second to Kevin Harvick in the points race, has won two of the last four races, and is the only one to have cracked Victory Lane outside the Joe Gibbs Racing stable in the past eight events. Kyle Busch has won three times in that span, Kenseth has won twice and Carl Edwards won last weekend at Darlington.

Four drivers went into qualifying for the last race to make NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup needing to win the 26th race of the season to qualify for a spot in the playoffs, and all four made it into the final round.

David Ragan finished with the best spot of the four, starting fifth, while Tony Stewart will start 10th, Austin Dillon 11th, and Kyle Larson 12th bidding for one of four spots still up for grabs.

Elliott ends 39-race winless streak

Chase Elliott got away from pole-sitter Kyle Busch on a restart with 26 laps to go Friday night and won the NASCAR Xfinity race at Richmond International Raceway, ending a 39-race winless streak.

Busch, starting fourth to Elliott’s first on the restart, appeared to make contact with the defending series champion, but Elliott was able to get away enough so that Busch could never put a bumper on him again.

It was the first time in the last 23 races at Richmond that the winner wasn’t a Sprint Cup Series regular. The last regular competitor in the lower series to win on the 0.75-mile, D-shaped oval was Busch back in 2004.

Busch held on the finish second, followed by Brian Scott, Joey Logano and Erik Jones.