Kevin Harvick poses with a trophy after winning the pole position during qualifying for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images
Looking to rebound from a disappointing finish in last weekend’s final race of the opening round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Kevin Harvick got things off to a good start on Thursday by taking the pole for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the opening race of Round 2 of the Chase.
Harvick took to the track in the third and final round of knockout qualifying and bested Alex Bowman with a lap of 27.547 seconds (196.029 mph) in the No. 4 Busch Beer Chevrolet to claim his first pole of the season and his first ever at Charlotte.
Bowman held on to take the outside pole, followed championship contenders Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch. Tony Stewart rounded out the top five.
After going the entire season without a pole, everything finally came together for Harvick on Thursday.
Harvick had led the lone practice session on Thursday afternoon and immediately went to the front of the field in the opening round of qualifying, leading A.J. Allmendinger and Bowman – who then come out in the second round and topped Harvick and Elliott to advance to the third round.
Bowman was the first to hit the asphalt in the final round and briefly held the top spot until Harvick knocked him off the provisional pole.
“We just haven’t had the speed on Friday’s this season with this particular downforce package, we just hadn’t hit on anything all year that felt comfortable enough to drive it like you could tonight,” said Harvick. “We’ve hit on it here and there throughout the year; all in all this is definitely the best we’ve performed on qualifying day all year.
“I think any time you can eliminate track position, that’s definitely a bonus. It definitely doesn’t hurt (to start on the pole). We haven’t had the speed that we’ve needed on qualifying day all year – this is the first time that it’s fired off like it did today and ran fast and had the speed that we needed.”
With rain looming in the forecast for Friday, Harvick’s team, like many, eschewed putting in too many laps running qualifying setups during Thursday’s lone practice session in favor of turning laps in race trim, hoping to gleam whatever information they could from qualifying.
“We unloaded in race trim and really only made one lap in qualifying trim,” said Harvick. “We struggled when we first rolled off the truck in race trim and got our car a little bit better and better and better. Hopefully what we learned in Qualifying, we can apply some of that stuff to the race trim stuff and go from there.”
Harvick is the only driver to never be eliminated since this format began three years ago – winning the title in 2014 and going right down to the wire against Kyle Busch in the finale last season.
So far in this season’s Chase, he won the second race of the opening round at Chicago to automatically advance to the Round of 12, which was fortuitous since he limped home to a 37th-place finish last weekend at Dover after suffering a broken trackbar mount.
Saturday’s race marks the first of three races in Round 2 of the Chase, followed next week at Kansas Speedway before wrapping up at the dreaded Talladega Superspeedway.
The very real possibility seeing your season end by getting caught up in “the Big One” at Talladega has many drivers hoping to score a victory in the next two weeks to secure a spot in the Round 3, rather than take their chances running with the pack at Talladega.
You can count Harvick among them.
“It would be a lot easier on my blood pressure, I know that for sure,” said Harvick of winning either of the next two races. “I think everyone had the same goal to try to win one of these first two races to try and eliminate that possibility, but really any of these races can jump up and bite you and really any time. Obviously Talladega has the most things out of your control, so if you can get to victory lane, it’s a huge benefit in this round.”
Bowman – filling in as driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for the ailing Dale Earnhardt, Jr., – got everyone’s attention after posting the second-quickest time behind Harvick in the afternoon practice session, and then topped Harvick in the second round of qualifying.
His second-place starting spot is his career-best in 76-career Sprint Cup Series starts, and although he’s never finished higher than 26th at Charlotte, this will be his first start here driving with Hendrick horsepower.
“Honestly, we didn’t put the greatest lap together,” said Bowman “In (turns) 1 and 2, we were a little free in and didn’t really keep it on the bottom like I needed to. Turns 3 and 4 were really good.
“It means so much for Hendrick Motorsports to take a chance on me for these races. I’m really thankful to be here. I hate that we didn’t get the pole. We were so close. It’s definitely my best starting spot by a bunch, but you’d always like that pole.”
Allmendinger claimed the sixth spot, followed by Chase contenders Martin Truex, Jr., Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano.
Other Chase contenders included Jimmie Johnson in 11th, Matt Kenseth in 17th, Austin Dillon in 19th and Brad Keselowski in 20th. Kurt Busch was the lowest-qualifying Chase contender in Thursday session, qualifying 23rd.
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Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
Bank of America 500 – October 6, 2016
1. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 196.029 mph.
2. (88) Alex Bowman(i), Chevrolet, 196.000 mph.
3. (24) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 195.759 mph.
4. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 195.228 mph.
5. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 195.228 mph.
6. (47) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 195.087 mph.
7. (78) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 194.826 mph.
8. (19) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 194.553 mph.
9. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 194.168 mph.
10. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 194.049 mph.
11. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 192.630 mph.
12. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 188.547 mph.
13. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 194.161 mph.
14. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 194.007 mph.
15. (17) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 193.966 mph.
16. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 193.868 mph.
17. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 193.791 mph.
18. (21) Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 193.736 mph.
19. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 193.722 mph.
20. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 193.625 mph.
21. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 193.209 mph.
22. (95) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 193.009 mph.
23. (41) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 192.205 mph.
24. (83) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 191.489 mph.
25. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 191.980 mph.
26. (34) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 191.829 mph.
27. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 191.544 mph.
28. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 191.530 mph.
29. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 191.469 mph.
30. (44) Brian Scott #, Ford, 191.381 mph.
31. (15) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 190.954 mph.
32. (38) Landon Cassill, Ford, 190.617 mph.
33. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 190.564 mph.
34. (23) David Ragan, Toyota, 190.054 mph.
35. (7) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 188.864 mph.
36. (98) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 186.002 mph.
37. (46) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 185.976 mph.
38. (32) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 185.039 mph.
39. (55) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 183.673 mph.
40. (30) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 183.343 mph.
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