Kevin Harvick earns Las Vegas Pole for Pennzoil 400

LAS VEGAS – Kevin Harvick will start out front for the 26th time of his career in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a time of 29.914 seconds at 180.517 mph.

Harvick’s time was briefly third on the speed charts during the final round of qualifying, as Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott were initially first and second respectively. However, they did not cross the start-finish line before time expired after their first lap, so their second laps around did not count, handing the pole to the third place driver.

“The fastest car in qualifying trim is fourth,” Harvick said. And he was correct. Austin Dillon was fastest in practice, but ended up fourth in the qualifying order.

“I told them before we qualified today that the fastest car would not get the pole today. In the final round it was going to come down to where you were at.”

Qualifying for this race was a big mind game, as drivers waited until the last second to go out for their timed run. In the final round, this cost Bowman and Elliott who will start 11th and 12th.

Hamlin will start second and was the only other driver in the 29 second bracket. Kyle Busch, Dillon, and Daniel Hemric rounded out the top five. Hemric was the only rookie in the final round of qualifying. David Ragan, Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano completed the top 10 of the starting spots.

The Pennzoil 400 will start on Sunday, March 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, or listen live on PRN.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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