Kevin Harvick took the Coors Light Pole Award for the Hollywood Casino 400 with a speed of 197.621 mph or 27.325 seconds It is his third pole in a row at Kansas Speedway. The pole was Harvick’s eighth of the season and his 21st top-10 start in 2014.
Harvick also set a new track qualifing record of 197.773 mph in the second round. It broke the previoius track record of 194.252 mph which was his own track record. It was the ninth track qualifying record for Chevrolet in 2014.
“I’m just really proud of everybody on our Budweiser team. We’ve been dealt some bad luck throughout the year, but it hasn’t fazed them in continuing to work on the cars and the speed. The first three weeks we have led a bunch of laps and qualified well. Last week had them covered and a valve stem got knocked off by a lugnut. Keep doing the things that you are doing and that luck will all come full circle and as long as the cars continue to be fast that stuff all comes back to you. Hopefully it peaks at the right time,” stated Harvick.
The outside front row starting spot belongs to Brian Vickers. It is his ninth top-10 start of 2014 and his fourth in 11 races at Kansas Speedway.
“It’s fast — wow. A 27.50 second lap around here, that was a fun lap. All the guys on this team did an awesome job with the car. That was probably the best setup race car on the race track. You’re not going to get through the corners any faster than that. I was really proud of the guys. Hopefully we can take that and take it into the race,” Vickers said post qualifying.
Aric Almirola will start on the second row in third position after being eliminated from the Chase last week at Dover.
“That was really important for us,” he noted. “Even though we are out of it we still want to compete like we are in the Chase; prove we are capable of doing it and prove it to ourselves and everyone else out there. This is exactly how we need to do that. We need a good run Sunday. We still have a lot to race for. We can get as high as fifth in points and that should be our goal, to get as high in points as we can.”
Joey Logano, who will start in fourth, was happy with his qualifying effort.
“That was faster than we were in practice, so that is good,” he explained. “Overall it is a good starting spot. Fourth is good. The outside lane is good to be in. We will try to move up from there and make sure we make good use of that good starting spot. That is important. Track position is important here and qualifying is one of the most important things of the weekend here and I am glad we were able to capitalize and get a good starting spot.”
The Hollywood Casino 400 will be televised on ESPN Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.
The final starting order is as follows:
1) Kevin Harvick
2) Brian Vickers
3) Aric Almirola
4) Joey Logano
5) Jeff Gordon
6) Brad Keselowski
7_ Kyle Busch
8) Dale Earnhardt Jr.
9) Tony Sewart
10) Kasey Kahne
11) Greg Biffle
12) Carl Edwards
13) Paul Menard
14) Jamie McMurray
15) Martin Truex Jr.
16) Austin Dillion
17) Ryan Newman
18) Kyle Larson
19) Clint Bowyer
20) AJ Allmendinger
21) Justin Allgaier
22) Marcos Ambrose
23) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24) Kurt Busch
25) Denny Hamlin
26) Casey Mears
27) Matt Kenseth
28) Michael McDowell
29) Danica Patrick
30) Reed Sorenson
31) David Gilliland
32) Jimmie Johnson
33) Alex Bowman
34) Josh Wise
35) Landon Cassill
36) Michael Annett
37) David Tagan
38) JJ Yeley
39) Cole Whitt
40) Timmy Hill
41) Mike Bliss
42) Joey Gase
43) Mike Wallace
