Qualifying report

NASCAR Cup Kansas II

Kevin Harvick wins the pole for Texas playoff race

Kevin Harvick will try for his third consecutive playoff victory at Texas Motor Speedway with the best view.

Jim Utter

Edited: Nov 3, 2019, 12:15 AM

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Pole sitter Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford Mustang Busch Beer / Ducks Unlimited

Harvick’s average lap speed of 189.707 mph led the way in Saturday’s qualifying and gave him the pole for Sunday’s AAA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Harvick has won the last two playoff races at Texas, although his victory last year was declared “encumbered” and he couldn’t use it to advance to the championship race.

The pole is Harvick’s sixth of the season – the most of any driver – and 31st of his career. His only previous pole at Texas came in the 2017 spring Texas race.

“The best part is our car drove really well in race trim yesterday and still had a lot of speed and put it in qualifying trim today and still made speed,” Harvick said. “So, hopefully, we can keep our track position.

“As you saw the last race (here), you want to be up front and you want to be on the right cycle of rotation of pit strategy. Having that first pit stall is definitely an advantage here. It will be a track position game and hopefully we can play it right and keep ourselves up front.”

Asked how much is a guessing game to have the set-up right at the end of the race, Harvick said: “When you look back at the first race, it was definitely a tire strategy game and you wanted to have the best track position at the end of the race.

“So, it’s difficult to know what that needs to be. Our car was really good in the 20 to 25 laps we ran in a row a couple times yesterday and hopefully it will feel good tomorrow as the track widens out and we get into that PJ1 (traction compound).”

Erik Jones (188.890 mph) ended up second and Denny Hamlin third (188.712 mph). Kurt Busch was fourth and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 starters are Aric Almirola, Daniel Suarez, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Matt DiBenedetto.

The cars of Stenhouse, Austin Dillon and Jimmie Johnson all failed pre-qualifying inspection twice. They each will lose 15 minutes of practice next week at ISM Raceway near Phoenix.

Stenhouse and Dillon had their respective car chief ejected; Johnson had a team engineer ejected for the remainder of the weekend.

Read Also:

Kurt Busch signs multi-year extension with Ganassi

la # Driver Manufacturer Time Gap Mph 1 4 United States Kevin Harvick Ford 28.465 189.707 2 20 Erik Jones Toyota 28.588 00.123 188.890 3 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 28.615 00.150 188.712 4 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 28.657 00.192 188.436 5 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 28.669 00.204 188.357 6 10 Aric Almirola Ford 28.675 00.210 188.317 7 41 Mexico Daniel Suarez Ford 28.723 00.258 188.003 8 2 United States Brad Keselowski Ford 28.727 00.262 187.976 9 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 28.734 00.269 187.931 10 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 28.740 00.275 187.891 11 22 Joey Logano Ford 28.755 00.290 187.793 12 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 28.764 00.299 187.735 13 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 28.782 00.317 187.617 14 9 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 28.817 00.352 187.389 15 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 28.841 00.376 187.233 16 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 28.846 00.381 187.201 17 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 28.863 00.398 187.091 18 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 28.901 00.436 186.845 19 24 William Byron Chevrolet 28.901 00.436 186.845 20 37 United States Chris Buescher Chevrolet 28.914 00.449 186.761 21 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 28.915 00.450 186.754 22 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 28.931 00.466 186.651 23 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 28.936 00.471 186.619 24 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 28.938 00.473 186.606 25 6 United States Ryan Newman Ford 28.951 00.486 186.522 26 38 David Ragan Ford 28.983 00.518 186.316 27 34 Michael McDowell Ford 29.004 00.539 186.181 28 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 29.018 00.553 186.091 29 36 John Hunter Nemechek Ford 29.097 00.632 185.586 30 96 Parker Kligerman Toyota 29.123 00.658 185.420 31 21 United States Paul Menard Ford 29.135 00.670 185.344 32 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 29.194 00.729 184.970 33 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 29.311 00.846 184.231 34 53 J.J. Yeley Ford 29.534 01.069 182.840 35 27 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 29.633 01.168 182.229 36 52 Garrett Smithley Ford 29.830 01.365 181.026 37 77 United States Quin Houff Chevrolet 29.831 01.366 181.020 38 15 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 30.025 01.560 179.850 39 51 Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 30.278 01.813 178.347 40 66 Timmy Hill Toyota 30.647 02.182 176.200

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