Kevin Harvick has continued his hot form in qualifying scoring his eighth pole of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season ahead of this weekend’s race at Kansas.

Prior to 2014, Harvick only had three career poles and this weekend’s Coors Light Pole Award backs-up last weekend’s effort at Dover. He also had pole last time out at Kansas in May and third straight at the track.

“For whatever reason, this fits everything I have going on with my driving style, but in the end it’s about having fast cars,” said Harvick.

The Stewart-Haas driver was the fastest car through all three qualifying rounds and his speed of 197.621 MPH (318.0408 km/h) was over a mile per hour faster than second-placed Brian Vickers.

With 2014 having knock-out styled qualifiers, a new element came into play today when Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin were tied on time after the first round for the final spot to advance to the next stage. NASCAR officials determined Newman would advance based on his higher points place after Dover; although the points ahead of this weekend were reset for this round of the Chase. It meant he was 24th at that stage and went on to qualify 13th.

Heading into the final six races of his NASCAR career before heading back to V8 Supercars in 2015, Marcos Ambrose will start 22nd.

“We were able to find some speed compared to our earlier practice, and we were able to advance to the second round. We didn’t quite have enough to make it to that final round, but I’m happy with the improvement from earlier,” said Ambrose.

“We have two practices tomorrow to figure out one and two and get ready for the race on Sunday.”

QUALIFYING: Hollywood Casino 400 – Kansas Speedway

POS.	CAR	DRIVER	MANUFACTURER	SPONSOR	MPH	BEST TIME	BEHIND
1	4	Kevin Harvick		Budweiser	197.621	27.325	Leader
2	55	Brian Vickers		Aaron’s Dream Machine	196.307	27.508	–0.183
3	43	Aric Almirola		Farmland	196.150	27.530	–0.205
4	22	Joey Logano		Shell Pennzoil	196.050	27.544	–0.219
5	24	Jeff Gordon		Drive to End Hunger	196.050	27.544	–0.219
6	2	Brad Keselowski		Miller Lite	196.021	27.548	–0.223
7	18	Kyle Busch		M&M’s	195.972	27.555	–0.230
8	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr		Diet Mountain Dew	195.702	27.593	–0.268
9	14	Tony Stewart		Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1	195.518	27.619	–0.294
10	5	Kasey Kahne		Farmer’s Insurance	195.362	27.641	–0.316
11	16	Greg Biffle		3M FILTRETE	194.974	27.696	–0.371
12	99	Carl Edwards		Fastenal	194.721	27.732	–0.407
13	27	Paul Menard		Quaker State / Menards	195.270	27.654	–0.329
14	1	Jamie McMurray		Cessna/Monopoly	195.164	27.669	–0.344
15	78	Martin Truex Jr		Furniture Row	195.080	27.681	–0.356
16	3	Austin Dillon		American Ethanol	195.059	27.684	–0.359
17	31	Ryan Newman		Caterpillar	195.016	27.690	–0.365
18	42	Kyle Larson		Target	194.918	27.704	–0.379
19	15	Clint Bowyer		Pink Lemonade 5-hour Energy Benefiting LBBC	194.868	27.711	–0.386
20	47	AJ Allmendinger		Clorox	194.833	27.716	–0.391
21	51	Justin Allgaier		BRANDT Professional Agriculture	194.679	27.738	–0.413
22	9	Marcos Ambrose		Stanley	194.609	27.748	–0.423
23	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr		Cargill / Sam’s Club	194.259	27.798	–0.473
24	41	Kurt Busch		Haas Automation	194.021	27.832	–0.507
25	11	Denny Hamlin		FedEx Office	193.736	27.873	–0.548
26	13	Casey Mears		No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS	193.653	27.885	–0.560
27	20	Matt Kenseth		Dollar General	193.611	27.891	–0.566
28	95	Michael McDowell		KLOVE Radio	192.678	28.026	–0.701
29	10	Danica Patrick		Aspen Dental	192.096	28.111	–0.786
30	36	Reed Sorenson		TBA	191.993	28.126	–0.801
31	38	David Gilliland		MDS Transport	191.198	28.243	–0.918
32	48	Jimmie Johnson		Lowe’s	191.123	28.254	–0.929
33	23	Alex Bowman		Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry	190.988	28.274	–0.949
34	98	Josh Wise		Westside Vapor/Vapor Station	190.840	28.296	–0.971
35	40	Landon Cassill		Snap Fitness	190.799	28.302	–0.977
36	7	Michael Annett		Accell Construction	190.725	28.313	–0.988
37	34	David Ragan		Dockside Logistics	190.644	28.325	–1.000
38	83	J.J. Yeley		Burger King Toyota	189.900	28.436	–1.111
39	26	Cole Whitt		Moen Toyota	188.917	28.584	–1.259
40	33	Timmy Hill		retroinfinity.com	188.547	28.640	–1.315
41	37	Mike Bliss		TBA	188.416	28.660	–1.335
42	32	Joey Gase		Donate Life	186.767	28.913	–1.588
43	66	Mike Wallace		435 Overland Park Place Hotel	183.057	29.499	–2.174

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