Keselowski leads Penske front row sweep at Pocono

Brad Keselowski celebrates after qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 3, 2016 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
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Brad Keselowski celebrates after qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 3, 2016 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
Brad Keselowski celebrates after qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 3, 2016 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.

Joey Logano had it, but his teammate Brad Keselowski took the pole away Friday at Pocono Raceway.  In a repeat of Charlotte qualifying when Logano went out early in the final round and grabbed the pole only to see it snatched away, Friday at Pocono the Penske Racing driver was first out in the final five minutes, the fastest and after leading the first two rounds seemed a lock for the pole.  Keselowski would have none of it however and with just over 1:30 to go put down a lap of 181.726 to secure his eighth career pole and his first at Pocono.

“That is really hard to do, I can tell you that.,” Keselowski said. “We had great speed obviously today. I wasn’t really sure what to expect with the rain and all the other variables that were kind of thrown at us with low practice. We thought we would be okay and quite honestly we tested here and we weren’t very good and we were just kind of not really sure what to expect

“We got that half a lap of practice in and we weren’t all that good there either but for some reason here in the qualifying session the team put things together and worked on it and found some speed and dialed on it each round and we got faster each round. That is why we are up here today.”

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Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.