Playoff driver Brad Keselowski won the Pole Award for Saturday nights 62nd Annual Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway with a lap of 21.229 seconds, 127.185 mph. This was Keselowski’s second pole at Richmond and his 17th of his career.
“You’d like to take control of this race and just own it as long as you can.” Brad Keselowski said. There’s not a better starting position and we want to maximize it. I think that first pit stall is gonna be really big at some point in the race and we’ll certainly try to use that to our advantage.”
The pole changed hands multiple times with the names of Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr, before Keselowski notched the top spot.
Tomorrow’s night race will be the first time Richmond will be a playoff race. In years past, it was marked as the final race of the regular season before that was changed.
The rest of the playoff field are scattered throughout the field. Harvick was second, Chase Elliott third, Kyle Busch fourth, Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-5.
“If we can put ourselves in a good position to get through the weekend and make the Roval a lot different to race just because of the fact that you know where you stand. Hopefully, you can put yourself in a position where you know where you stand when you leave here.” Harvick said.
Denny Hamlin qualified sixth, Aric Almirola seventh, Truex Jr eighth, Kurt Busch ninth, Kyle Larson 13th, Ryan Blaney 15th, Erik Jones 16th, Ryan Newman 19th, Alex Bowman 20th, William Byron 25th and Joey Logano 28th (the lowest of the playoff field).
“I thought we were good in race trim, actually. I thought our speed is good as anybody, so that’s encouraging. We just have to get through the field, which if I stay patient, we should be OK.” Logano said of his qualifying effort.
Two practice sessions were held earlier in the day in advance of tomorrow night’s race. Chris Buescher of the No. 37 JTG Daughtery Racing team was fastest in the first practice, while Martin Truex Jr was fastest in the final practice session of the day.
Live coverage of the Federated Auto Parts 400 begins tomorrow afternoon at 6:00 p.m./ET with NASCAR America on NBCSN. Countdown to Green follows at 7:00 p.m./ET. The second race in the 2019 playoffs is scheduled to get underway shortly after 7:30 pm./ET. Stages will be broken up into 100/200/400.
The cars will be impounded, as tech will start at 1:30 pm./ET. Official lineups will come just a few hours before the race.
Unofficial Qualifying Results
- Brad Keselowski
- Kevin Harvick
- Chase Elliott
- Kyle Busch
- Clint Bowyer
- Denny Hamlin
- Aric Almirola
- Martin Truex Jr
- Kurt Busch
- Jimmie Johnson
- Michael McDowell
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Kyle Larson
- Daniel Suarez
- Ryan Blaney
- Erik Jones
- Austin Dillon
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr
- Ryan Newman
- Alex Bowman
- Ryan Preece
- Daniel Hemric
- Chris Buescher
- Paul Menard
- William Byron
- Matt Tifft
- David Ragan
- Joey Logano
- Corey LaJoie
- Bubba Wallace
- Ty Dillon
- Ross Chastain
- J.J. Yeley
- Austin Theriault
- Reed Sorenson
- Landon Cassill
- Spencer Boyd
- Quin Houff
