NASCAR at Richmond 2015 Qualifying Results: Race Order, Final Times and Reaction

It's the racers against the track and time during NASCAR qualifying events, and nobody has won more battles with the clock in 2015 than Joey Logano.

Logano won the Coors Light Pole Award on Friday during qualifying for Saturday's Toyota Owners 400 at the Richmond International Raceway. It was his series-high third pole win of the season, thus far, after previously starting first at Atlanta and Martinsville. 

Jeff Gluck of USA Today noted that Logano has made a habit of this:

Logano enjoyed himself in the aftermath of the impressive performance:

He held off former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin for the pole position, which was notable because Hamlin has won two races at Richmond in his career. Here is a look at Logano, Hamlin and the rest of the top finishers' times, per NASCAR.com:

Place	Driver	Best Speed	Best Time	Behind Leader
1	Joey Logano	127.071	21.248	---
2	Denny Hamlin	126.796	21.294	0.046
3	Kurt Busch	126.606	21.326	0.078
4	A.J. Allmendinger	126.570	21.332	0.084
5	Kevin Harvick	126.428	21.356	0.108
6	Martin Truex Jr.	126.115	21.409	0.161
7	Brad Keselowski	126.027	21.424	0.176
8	Matt Kenseth	125.821	21.459	0.211
9	Jamie McMurray	125.587	21.499	0.251
10	David Ragan	125.471	21.519	0.271
11	Jeff Gordon	125.348	21.540	0.292
12	Kyle Larson	124.977	21.604	0.356

While Logano came through when it mattered most in the third round of elimination qualifying, Kevin Harvick turned in the best time in the first round. The early rounds are more about surviving and advancing than who finishes fastest, which is why the lackluster performances from the Hendrick Motorsports cars were more newsworthy than Harvick's initial lead.

Jeff Gordon also made it to the final 12, but he was the only full-time Hendrick driver to get past the initial round.

Dustin Long of NBC Sports passed along the notable early misses, while Fox Sports NASCAR and Long shared quotes from a disappointed Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson:

Hamlin finished with the best time in the second round, although it was once again more about who made it to that last round than anything else. Fox Sports 1 pointed out that a number of household names saw their evenings end in the second round, including Danica Patrick and Tony Stewart:

Logano and Hamlin then took care of business in the third round and secured their spots up front for Saturday's race. 

Hamlin's performance was encouraging because he was something of a health risk coming into Friday's qualifying session. A formidable showing and a second-place finish means he should be fine Saturday, but he provided assurances, per Gluck and Long:

Now that qualifying is in the rearview mirror, it is time to look ahead to Saturday's Toyota Owners 400. Logano won the event last year and showed no signs of slowing down during qualifying.

Logano has plenty of momentum on his side after Friday's showing and should have more confidence than arguably anyone else on the race track. He won this event last year and will have nothing but open track ahead of him at the start Saturday. Look for him to establish an early lead from the pole position and attempt to parlay that into a victory.

He is second behind only Harvick in the current standings, which makes the difference between Harvick's qualifying performance and Logano's performance noteworthy. Even if Logano doesn't win Saturday, he has a golden opportunity to pick up some critical points on the Sprint Cup Series leaderboard.