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Qualifying report

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.

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

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

Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images

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:

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

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