Erik Jones cruises to pole at Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS—Erik Jones will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver posted the fastest lap time in the final round of qualifying Friday at 188.121 mph (28.705 seconds), good enough for his first pole of 2018 and second of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career.

“The track kind of came to us,” Jones said. “I figured we knew exactly what we needed to do adjustment-wise.

“We were able to get the DeWalt Camry the way it needed to be and put together a really good lap. You can’t start it out any better than that.”

Joey Logano posted the second-fastest lap time in the final round at 188.101 mph (28.708 seconds), his second front-row start of 2018. Winning a pole in the Cup Series this year has evaded Logano.

“I don’t know what that is in distance on the race track but it can’t be much,” Logano said. “I am proud of the effort everyone has put into this car. We have a good Pennzoil Ford to run here at Vegas. I am excited about that.”

Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Kevin Harvick—the March 2018 Las Vegas winner— will start third, fourth and fifth respectively.

Defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. will start 10th.

Reed Sorenson was the only driver to not post a lap time in qualifying. He will start 40th.

The South Point 400 is the opening race of the playoffs for the series. Live television coverage of the race will be Sunday at 3 p.m ET on NBCSN.

STARTING LINEUP
1) No. 20 Erik Jones*
2) No. 22 Joey Logano*
3) No. 11 Denny Hamlin*
4) No. 18 Kyle Busch*
5) No. 4 Kevin Harvick*
6) No. 12 Ryan Blaney*
7) No. 9 Chase Elliott*
8) No. 41 Kurt Busch*
9) No. 88 Alex Bowman*
10) No. 78 Martin Truex Jr.*
11) No. 42 Kyle Larson*
12) No. 1 Jamie McMurray
13) No. 2 Brad Keselowski*
14) No. 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
15) No. 14 Clint Bowyer*
16) No. 10 Aric Almirola*
17) No. 48 Jimmie Johnson*
18) No. 3 Austin Dillon*
19) No. 19 Daniel Suarez
20) No. 21 Paul Menard
21) No. 24 William Byron
22) No. 31 Ryan Newman
23) No. 6 Trevor Bayne
24) No. 34 Michael McDowell
25) No. 95 Regan Smith
26) No. 32 Matt DiBenedetto
27) No. 38 David Ragan
28) No. 37 Chris Buescher
29) No. 47 A.J. Allmendinger
30) No. 13 Ty Dillon
31) No. 43 Bubba Wallace
32) No. 72 Corey LaJoie
33) No. 99 Kyle Weatherman
34) No. 15 Reed Sorenson
35) No. 96 Jeffrey Earnhardt
36) No. 23 J.J. Yeley
37) No. 00 Landon Cassill
38) No. 51 B.J. McLeod
39) No. 66 Timmy Hill
40) No. 7 Reed Sorenson

* indicates playoff driver.

SOURCES
Ford Performance
Racing-Refence.info
Toyota Racing