Ryan Blaney earns pole position over Kevin Harvick at Las Vegas

Blaney saved his best for last, posting the fastest average lap speed of day in the final round of knockout qualifying Friday to win the pole for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Blaney’s lap at 191.489 mph easily surpassed that of Kevin Harvick (190.248 mph), who actually went slower in the final round than in the second.

Kurt Busch will start third, Martin Truex Jr. fourth and Kyle Larson will complete the top-five.

Rounding out the top 12: Chase Elliott, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard.

The pole is Blaney’s first of the season and third of his Cup career. His most recent pole came last fall at Phoenix.

“My team does such a good job getting us better each round,” said Blaney, who is second in the series standings. “We definitely did that. It’s really cool to have a lot of speed in our Ford Fusion.

“The wind was crazy – it kept blowing me around in (Turn) 3. It was just gusty. The second round it really didn’t gust hard. It was kind of random. It’s cool to get our first pole of the season and hopefully our car will be good in race trim tomorrow and come Sunday.”

Round 2

Harvick wasted no time bolting to the top spot in the second 10-minute round of knockout qualifying, posting his flying lap shortly after the session began.

His average lap speed of 191.090 mph was fastest of the day at the time and just edged Blaney (191.008 mph).

Jones was third, Logano fourth and Truex fifth. Also advancing to the final round were Elliott, Stenhouse, Keselowski, Bowyer, Larson, Menard and Kurt Busch.

Menard, who was fastest in the first round, and Keselowski broke into the Top 12 after making late-session second attempts.

Among those who failed to advance to the final round were Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, rookie William Byron, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon.

“We just missed it a little bit off of Turn 4 over there. We were good in Round 1, we just got too loose,” Busch said.

“Historically, we don’t qualify well here. Hopefully, we’ll roll triple sevens on Sunday and come away with the win.”

Round 1

Menard led a sweep for Ford of the top three positions in the first 15-minute round of knockout qualifying.

Menard’s average lap speed of 190.181 mph just eclipsed that of Keselowski (190.168 mph). Blaney was third, Byron fourth and Elliott completed the top-five.

Truex posted the 10th-fastest speed in the first round but said it had a right-rear tire which equalized and sought permission from NASCAR to make a tire change. The team’s request was denied.

Johnson was the final car to make an attempt, which came with two minutes, 40 seconds remaining in the session. He ended up 14th and knocked Darrell Wallace Jr. out of the Top 24 in the process.

“Honestly, I don't know,” Wallace said when asked what the issue was with his No. 43 Chevrolet. “We are all scratching our heads ... but we're still pumped up and will figure it out for Sunday.”

Among the others who failed to advance to Round 2 were Ryan Newman, A.J. Allmendinger, Aric Almirola and Ty Dillon.

Xfinity Series regular Cole Custer was 30th fastest in the No. 51 Ford and will make his Cup series debut in Sunday’s race.

All cars passed inspection and were ready to qualify when Round 1 got underway. Several, including Almirola and Kyle Busch, required multiple attempts to pass, however.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	28.200		191.489
2	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	28.384	0.184	190.248
3	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	28.411	0.211	190.067
4	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	28.424	0.224	189.980
5	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	28.504	0.304	189.447
6	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	28.545	0.345	189.175
7	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	28.549	0.349	189.148
8	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	28.556	0.356	189.102
9	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	28.614	0.414	188.719
10	22	Joey Logano	Ford	28.626	0.426	188.640
11	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	28.652	0.452	188.469
12	21	Paul Menard	Ford	28.656	0.456	188.442
13	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	28.596	0.396	188.838
14	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	28.615	0.415	188.712
15	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	28.631	0.431	188.607
16	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	28.656	0.456	188.442
17	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	28.668	0.468	188.363
18	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	28.744	0.544	187.865
19	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	28.747	0.547	187.846
20	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	28.809	0.609	187.441
21	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	28.830	0.630	187.305
22	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	28.839	0.639	187.246
23	38	David Ragan	Ford	28.852	0.652	187.162
24	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	28.968	0.768	186.413
25	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	28.777	0.577	187.650
26	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	28.793	0.593	187.546
27	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	28.890	0.690	186.916
28	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	28.980	0.780	186.335
29	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	29.013	0.813	186.123
30	51	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	29.035	0.835	185.982
31	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	29.140	0.940	185.312
32	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	29.185	0.985	185.027
33	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	29.441	1.241	183.418
34	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	29.626	1.426	182.272
35	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	30.127	1.927	179.241
36	00	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	30.631	2.431	176.292
37	55	Joey Gase	Chevrolet	31.101	2.901	173.628