 The race was the first to use the three-round knockout format for 1.25 miles (2.00 km) and longer tracks.Joey Logano won the pole with a new track record time of 27.939 and a speed of , leading a Team Penske front row ahead of Brad Keselowski.Logano stated that to "have a Penske front row the last two weekends at two completely different race tracks just goes to show how hard these guys have been working", while also stating that the team "obviously haven't won on Sunday yet, so we've got to figure out the big show, but we've had some good speed in our cars".