Daniel Hemric speeds to first career pole at Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Daniel Hemric captured the pole for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway with a time of 30.32 and 178.047 mph. This was Hemric’s first career Cup Series pole.

Hemric is looking for a new ride next year and this pole is good timing for the rookie driver.

“I’m not really going to say it boosts confidence,” Hemric says regarding the pole. “It’s cool to get a checkmark off this race team. Myself being a small part of it, it’s good to get that. Through all of this stuff, I haven’t felt like my confidence has not wavered on way or another, but in the makes of everything going on right now, to a personal side to a racing side trying to align all of that stuff and position yourself in the future, it doesn’t hurt to win the pole.”

With Hemric qualifying on the pole, the starting grid will have some different faces at the top for the start of tomorrow’s race. David Ragan put down a lap of 30.36 in his No. 38 Ford Mustang to put himself in second which was his best qualifying effort of the season.

“I hope we can be the fastest on Sunday too,” Ragan said. “We made adjustments on our Ford Mustang last night anticipating a little warmer race on Sunday. We looked at the weather and we looked at what we did here in the spring and so we really didn’t think much of qualifying. It is what it is on these impound races. I was surprised to see the speed that Michael (McDowell) had in his car. I was optimistic knowing our cars were pretty close. To be on the Front Row is awesome for the start of the race on Sunday. Hopefully, we can make some adjustments and be a top-10 or top-15 car on Sunday.”

Ryan Blaney was third, Brad Keselowski fourth, Kyle Larson fifth, Michael McDowell sixth, Ryan Newman seventh, Daniel Saurez eighth, Austin Dillon ninth and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top-10 qualifying spots.

Kevin Harvick was not able to put down a lap in today’s qualifying session. Harvick failed inspection three times before passing on the fourth time due to a tech issue. With the issue, the No. 4 Stewart Haas Racing driver will start last in tomorrow’s race.

The No. 19 of Martin Truex Jr. also had tech problems prior to qualifying. Truex failed twice and lost his car chief for the weekend plus the loss of 15 minutes of practice time for next weekend at Martinsville. However, Truex gets to keep his spot (11th).

Official Qualifying Results

1. Daniel Hemric
2. David Ragan
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Kyle Larson
6. Michael McDowell
7. Ryan Newman
8. Daniel Suarez
9. Austin Dillon
10. Bubba Wallace
11. Martin Truex Jr
12. Jimmie Johnson
13. Aric Almirola
14. Chase Elliott
15. Kurt Busch
16. Alex Bowman
17. Matt Tifft
18. Kyle Busch
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
20. Erik Jones
21. Clint Bowyer
22. Paul Menard
23. Denny Hamlin
24. Ty Dillon
25. William Byron
26. Chris Buescher
27. Matt DiBenedetto
28. Ryan Preece
29. Joey Logano
30. Landon Cassill
31. Corey LaJoie
32. Parker Kligerman
33. Ross Chastain
34. Reed Sorenson
35. Garrett Smithley
36. J.J. Yeley
37. Josh Bilicki
38. Timmy Hill
39. Joey Gase
40. Kevin Harvick

The start of tomorrow’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway is slated for 2:30 p.m. ET live on NBC for the final race in the Round of 12.