Logano and McDowell Secure Daytona 500 Front Row; Alfredo and Ragan Lock in

It's not often that Joey Logano checks off something that he's never accomplished in his illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career, but the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Team Penske Ford Mustang did just that on

Wednesday night. In round 2 of Daytona 500 qualifying, Logano turned a fast lap of 49.465 sec. (181.947 mph), which was 0.071 sec. fast enough for him to score his first career Daytona 500 pole position.

"This is all about the team," an elated Logano stated after he won the pole. "Honestly, I'd like to take credit, but I can't today. The guys have done such an amazing job working on these cars, and the superspeedway qualifying is 100% the car. There is only so much the driver can do. So, I'm so proud of them. That's a big win for our team, for everyone at Team Penske, and Ford with the new Dark Horse Mustang. Being able to come down here and put it on the pin. Finally, somebody else wins the pole. That part feels good."

Logano, who was the final driver to take to the track in the final round of qualifying, knocked Michael McDowell from the top spot, but McDowell, like Logano, will not have to worry about his starting spot for Sunday's race in Thursday's Duels as the front row for the Daytona 500 is officially set.

While he got knocked off of the pole at the end of the session, McDowell admits that he was surprised by the speed he had in qualifying.

"Yes, it did surprise me," McDowell said. "If you ask my crew chief Travis Peterson, he wouldn't have been surprised. We were actually joking a lot today because we put a lot of emphasis on having as much speed as we could build into our Daytona 500 car here."

Kyle Larson narrowly missed out on another Daytona 500 front-row start for Hendrick Motorsports as he was third in the session, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, and Harrison Burton rounded out the top 10 drivers in the qualifying session.

Surprisingly, Alex Bowman, who had six-consecutive front-row starts in the Daytona 500, failed to advance to the second round of the session, and he was credited with the 17th-fastest lap in qualifying.

It was a rough day, overall, for Bowman and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team as the car failed pre-qualifying inspection twice, which led to NASCAR ejecting car chief Ty Sipes for Thursday's Duel Qualifier.

While Bowman was the biggest surprise to miss the second round of qualifying, the Toyota teams suffered from an overall lack of single-car speed.

The fastest Toyota in the session was Erik Jones, who clocked in 22nd in the No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB entry.

While the focus was on who would score the pole for The Great American Race, two Open cars had a chance to secure their place in the Daytona 500 field by way of speed on Wednesday night.

In what can only be described as an upset, Anthony Alfredo (No. 62 Beard Motorsports driver) turned the 20th-fastest lap in the opening round of qualifying, which was the fastest lap of any Open driver in the field.

As Kaz Grala suffered an issue with his shifter during his lap, Alfredo secured his second Daytona 500 start. Immediately, tears began flowing from the eyes of everyone in the underdog Beard Motorsports team.

“This is insane," A jubilant Alfredo stated after locking into the field. "I mean, we were just talking about every possible scenario we might find ourselves in today, tomorrow, and obviously Sunday. But to make it to Sunday is a challenge. It’s such a competitive field of Open cars and drivers behind the wheel. I’m just really thankful for the Beard family giving me this opportunity and Death Wish Coffee coming on board. We have a clearly fast Chevrolet Camaro. I mean, we have beat a lot of big teams so far. To know that we’re in, and know we don’t have to race in tomorrow and just remove ourselves from the sketchy circumstances and focus on Sunday is just amazing, and amazing feeling.”

Like Alfredo, David Ragan locked in by way of speed. Ragan clocked in the 27th-fastest lap of the session, and when Jimmie Johnson clocked in with a lap good enough for 35th-fastest, Ragan's spot in the Daytona 500 field was set.

“It’s always big to be in the Daytona 500, and the whole week I’ve just been trying to make sure we didn’t make any mistakes," Ragan said. "And I really felt like we were going to have a shot at a top-10 or top-12 starting spot, but just shows all of the hard work that this BuildSubmarines.com Ford team has done. Derrick Finley, he puts a lot of effort into the race team at RFK. I’ve worked with him in the past, and he has been nervous as a cat all afternoon. I’m really proud for Derrick and proud for all of the RFK guys. And I appreciate Brad Keselowski and Jack Roush giving me an opportunity to come down here to try to win a Daytona 500.”

While Alfredo and Ragan are locked into the field, regardless of what happens in the Duels, four drivers will now pop tablets of Tums all night long as they anxiously await the Bluegreen Vacation Duels on Thursday night. Only two of the four Open teams that have yet to secure a spot in the field will advance to the 40-car starting lineup.

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, BJ McLeod, JJ Yeley, and Kaz Grala will battle it out for the final two transfer spots.

Photo Credit: Craig White, TobyChristie.com