Qualifying report
NASCAR Cup Richmond
Kevin Harvick tops Erik Jones for Richmond Cup pole
Kevin Harvick becomes the first repeat pole winner in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this season.
Jim Utter
Edited: Apr 12, 2019, 10:45 PM
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Harvick ended a streak of eight different pole winners to open the 2019 season by capturing the pole for Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) Richmond.
The pole is the second of the season for Harvick and 27th of his career and comes.
Harvick, who led the Cup series with eight victories last year, is still looking for his first win of the season. His average lap speed of 124.298 mph topped Erik Jones (124.081 mph) in the final round.
“I’m just pretty proud of everybody on the No. 4 team and at Stewart-Haas Racing,” Harvick said. “Last week was a success from a speed standpoint. That was the first week we were able to have the speed to be able to win the race.
“We had a lot of things go wrong, but you’ll have those days. The most important thing was the speed. We did a great job today. I didn’t think it was a perfect lap from my standpoint, but I was to get in the throttle on the exit to the corner and put down a decent lap.
“You just have to go faster than everybody else.”
Kurt Busch ended up third, Joey Logano was fourth and Kyle Busch completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top 12 starters are Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Jimmie Johnson, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski.
Round 2
Kyle Busch powered to the top of the leaderboard in the second five-minute session of qualifying.
Busch’s average lap speed of 124.769 mph topped Harvick (124.435 mph) and Jones (124.407 mph). Truex was fourth and Austin Dillon completed the top-five.
Also advancing to the final round were Logano, Kurt Busch, Elliott, Buescher, Suarez and Johnson.
Larson, who was second-fastest in the first round, ended up 14th.
Among the others who failed to advance were Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and William Byron.
Round 1
Kurt Busch led the way in the first five-minute round of knockout qualifying, the first time he’s advanced out of the first round in three races.
Busch’s average lap speed of 125.815 mph topped Larson (125.517 mph) and Stenhouse (125.354 mph). Hamlin was fourth and Austin Dillon completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top-10 were Harvick, Jones, Bowyer, Suarez and Truex.
Friday was the first time NASCAR has used three, five-minute rounds for qualifying.
Among those who failed to advance to the second round were Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Ty Dillon, Ryan Newman and Michael McDowell.
“Probably not a good thing to wait until the last car to go out on a green race track,” Blaney said over his radio following the first round.
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Time Gap Mph 1 4 
Kevin Harvick Ford 21.722 124.298 2 20 Erik Jones Toyota 21.760 0.038 124.081 3 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 21.797 0.075 123.870 4 22 Joey Logano Ford 21.832 0.110 123.672 5 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 21.845 0.123 123.598 6 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 21.880 0.158 123.400 7 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 21.924 0.202 123.153 8 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 21.958 0.236 122.962 9 41 
Daniel Suarez Ford 22.021 0.299 122.610 10 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 22.101 0.379 122.166 11 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 22.106 0.384 122.139 12 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 22.120 0.398 122.061 13 21 Paul Menard Ford 21.848 0.126 123.581 14 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 21.855 0.133 123.542 15 10 Aric Almirola Ford 21.865 0.143 123.485 16 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 21.871 0.149 123.451 17 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 21.891 0.169 123.338 18 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 21.898 0.176 123.299 19 24 William Byron Chevrolet 21.899 0.177 123.293 20 36 Matt Tifft Ford 21.900 0.178 123.288 21 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 21.925 0.203 123.147 22 38 David Ragan Ford 21.934 0.212 123.097 23 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 21.951 0.229 123.001 24 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 22.099 0.377 122.177 25 34 Michael McDowell Ford 21.802 0.080 123.842 26 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 21.821 0.099 123.734 27 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 21.823 0.101 123.723 28 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 21.843 0.121 123.609 29 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 21.849 0.127 123.575 30 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 21.873 0.151 123.440 31 6 Ryan Newman Ford 21.898 0.176 123.299 32 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 21.920 0.198 123.175 33 52 Bayley Currey Ford 22.046 0.324 122.471 34 51 Jeb Burton Chevrolet 22.211 0.489 121.561 35 77 Quin Houff Chevrolet 22.384 0.662 120.622 36 66 Joey Gase Toyota 22.652 0.930 119.195 37 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet
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