Brad Keselowski will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday. The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford won the pole with a time of 27.421 and a speed of 196.929 mph.
Keselowski said that his “Wurth Ford Fusion has been really good since we unloaded. Very similar to where we were at Kansas, really fast in practice and really fast in qualifying. But we just need that to say with us in the race and we didn’t get that in Kansas.” He also joked that he’s glad to “have the first pit stall and we get to keep it this time. We are really excited about the race Sunday.”
Kevin Harvick was second with a time of 27.552 and a speed of 195.993 mph.
Harvick said that he practically “ran the same speed in all three rounds there. Didn’t quite have the raw speed in the first round, but this is a racetrack where you want the car to keep going as long as you can. Felt like we had a good start to our race trim practice today and going to have a good spot to start on Sunday.”
Kyle Busch was third with a time of 27.591 and a speed of 195.716 mph.
He said that while he doesn’t “need to win, we would love to win. I feel like this is a good opportunity for us to have a really good day and for us to score a victory. We come to every race trying to win and this one’s no different. I hope that Texas will bode well for us and we can score that win. If not, a solid top-five finish is exactly what we need. That’s where we need to be at the end of the day and carry on that momentum and go into Phoenix and hope for another solid day there.”
Joey Logano qualified fourth with a time of 27.633 and a speed of 195.419 mph. Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five with a time of 27.644 and a speed of 195.341 mph.
Erik Jones, driving in place of the suspended Matt Kenseth, will make his second career Sprint Cup Series start from the sixth starting position.
Jones said that his qualifying run was “a really good effort for us. We made the final round at Kansas as well so it’s cool to make the final round in both our starts. We’ll see where it goes from here, obviously we’ve got a long ways to go yet for Sunday, 500 miles. This definitely helps everybody’s confidence a little bit for that.”
Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-10.
Carl Edwards qualified 13th followed by Jeff Gordon, who locked himself into the championship race at Homestead with a win last Sunday at Martinsville, qualified 18th. Martin Truex Jr. was the lowest qualifying Chase driver in 23rd.
Joey Gase and Reed Sorenson failed to qualify for the race.
Complete Starting Lineup for the AAA Texas 500:
- Brad Keselowski
- Kevin Harvick
- Kyle Busch
- Joey Logano
- Kyle Larson
- Erik Jones
- Kurt Busch
- Jimmie Johnson
- Denny Hamlin
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Danica Patrick
- Greg Biffle
- Carl Edwards
- Clint Bowyer
- David Ragan
- Kasey Kahne
- Casey Mears
- Jeff Gordon
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Brian Scott
- Tony Stewart
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Aric Almirola
- Ryan Blaney
- Austin Dillon
- Jamie McMurray
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Trevor Bayne
- AJ Allmendinger
- Alex Bowman
- Sam Hornish Jr.
- Michael McDowell
- JJ Yeley
- Brett Moffitt
- Landon Cassill
- Michael Annett
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Cole Whitt
- Jeb Burton
- David Gilliland
- Ryan Preece
- Justin Allgaier
