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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