Kevin Harvick poses with the pole award after qualifying for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images
Kevin Harvick took the pole for Sunday’s 58th-running of the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, topping the speed charts in Thursday night’s qualifying session to earn his second-straight Charlotte pole and his first-ever pole in NASCAR’s longest race.
Harvick was the second car to take to the track in the final round and immediately powered to the top of the speed charts with a lap of 193.424 mph to knock Martin Truex, Jr. from the pole. Kyle Busch was the only driver to come close to matching Harvick, but was still nearly a mile-an-hour slower at 192.513 mph.
Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott was third running 192.260, followed by Matt Kenseth at 192.130 and rookie Erik Jones at 191.782.
Harvick’s top-qualifying effort was his third of the season and 20th of his career, and his best Coca Cola 600 start since a sixth-place start in his rookie year back in 2001.
“Our cars have been fast. We have qualified well. We just hadn’t put together the weekend,” said Harvick. “The car unloaded fast. It was very edgy to drive. It was definitely a hairy lap but the car went really well through turns three and four. That’s always our goal, to get the car to turn in the middle of three and four and be able to stay in the gas. The first round, I about spun out in one and two. I had to make some adjustments in what I had to do.
“From the Xfinity car there is a big difference. So, I was a little bit too aggressive. I was able to find a happy medium, and the crew made the car a little bit better. We were able to capitalize on it and have a fast Ford.”
Harvick has traditionally not qualified well at Charlotte – posting just eight top-10 starts prior to last year – but now has won back-to-back poles at the 1.5-mile track after winning his first-career Charlotte pole in last October’s Bank of America 500.
Kyle Busch’s runner-up start marked his best starting spot of the year for the All Star Racing winner – who will be looking to become just the eighth driver to win both the All Star race and the Coca Cola 600 in the same week.
“It’s certainly nice to just have the speed right now,” said Busch. “(It) Shows that we’ve got performance right now, so we just got to put it all together. It’s a long, long day. Starting up front doesn’t necessarily mean anything right now. It’s just good for pit selection obviously and hopefully Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and my boys, we can get it all tuned up tomorrow and get ready for a great 600 miles.”
Several teams had issues getting through technical inspection, including series points leader Kyle Larson, who did not get to make a qualifying attempt after his No. 42 Chevrolet could not clear tech.
Larson had suffered damage to his car after hitting the wall in Cup Series practice earlier in the day and was already behind the eight-ball even before inspection began.
His car had trouble getting through the Laser Inspection System and had to go through inspection twice before his car was finally cleared with barely a minute left in the opening round – too late for Larson to get strapped in and make a qualifying run.
NASCAR later said the LIS was working fine, but the No. 42 team had not gotten the car lined up on the machine properly.
“We’ll start last instead of from the pole,” said Larson. “I guess I’m upset at myself for getting into the wall in practice there because it put us behind on getting to the tech line. We still failed a couple of times. The machine wouldn’t work there, late, and it cost us a minute or minute and a half, and we actually passed. But we didn’t have enough time to get out there. Had the machine worked, maybe we would have made it out there for that round. I don’t know. I won’t speak too much on it because I don’t know much about how that whole tech process works. I know all the teams hate it. The teams point at NASCAR. NASCAR points at the teams. It’s confusing to me.”
Larson will start 39th in Sunday’s race while Corey LaJoie – who was also unable to get his car through inspection – will start 40th.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
Coca-Cola 600 – May 25, 2017
Thursday’s Qualifying Results
1. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 193.424 mph.
2. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 192.513 mph.
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4. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 192.130 mph.
5. (77) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 191.782 mph.
6. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 191.768 mph.
7. (21) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 191.734 mph.
8. (78) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 191.245 mph.
9. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 191.042 mph.
10. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 190.833 mph.
11. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 190.503 mph.
12. (41) Kurt Busch, Ford, 190.007 mph.
13. (17) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 190.631 mph.
14. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 190.349 mph.
15. (10) Danica Patrick, Ford, 190.275 mph.
16. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 190.241 mph.
17. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 190.074 mph.
18. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 190.014 mph.
19. (88) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 189.940 mph.
20. (19) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 189.773 mph.
21. (95) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 189.620 mph.
22. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 189.613 mph.
23. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 189.467 mph.
24. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 188.442 mph.
25. (43) Regan Smith(i), Ford, 188.311 mph.
26. (47) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 188.278 mph.
27. (13) Ty Dillon #, Chevrolet, 188.173 mph.
28. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 188.153 mph.
29. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 187.337 mph.
30. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 186.909 mph.
31. (34) Landon Cassill, Ford, 185.810 mph.
32. (23) Gray Gaulding #, Toyota, 184.590 mph.
33. (7) J.J. Yeley(i), Chevrolet, 184.143 mph.
34. (72) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 182.704 mph.
35. (15) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 181.336 mph.
36. (51) Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, 177.521 mph.
37. (55) Derrike Cope, Toyota, 176.974 mph.
38. (33) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 176.459 mph.
39. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
40. (83) Corey LaJoie #, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
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