Kevin Harvick has scored his first pole of the NASCAR season with the fastest time in qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The opening race of the next phase of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, it was also Harvick’s first pole at Charlotte and 16th of his career. He is the 12th different pole winner of the season.
“The car was too loose the round before and I got to the green better that time and got through 1 and 2 good and felt like I gave up something in 3 and 4 coming to the chequered,” said Harvick.
“This has just been a fun car to drive today. Hopefully, we can get it dialled in for race trim.
“We struggled when we first rolled off the truck in race trim and we just got it better and better and better. We applied all that stuff to qualifying so hopefully we’ll what we learned in qualifying we can apply to the race trim stuff and go from there.”
A big result for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s substitute Alex Bowman who will share the front row with the 2014 series champion.
Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart rounded out the top five.
QUALIFYING: Bank of America 500 – Charlotte Motor Speedway
| POS. | CAR # | DRIVER | MAKE | SPONSOR | MPH | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | Busch Hunting Chevrolet SS | 196.029 | 27.547 | Leader |
| 2 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | Axalta | 196.000 | 27.551 | –0.004 |
| 3 | 24 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 3M | 195.759 | 27.585 | –0.038 |
| 4 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | Interstate Batteries – ABC | 195.228 | 27.660 | –0.113 |
| 5 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | Mobil 1 / Rev the Vote Chevrolet SS | 195.228 | 27.660 | –0.113 |
| 6 | 47 | AJ Allmendinger | Chevrolet | Kroger / Stouffer’s / Stouffer’s FitKitchen | 195.087 | 27.680 | –0.133 |
| 7 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr | Toyota | Furniture Row / Denver Mattress | 194.826 | 27.717 | –0.170 |
| 8 | 19 | Carl Edwards | Toyota | Stanley | 194.553 | 27.756 | –0.209 |
| 9 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | FedEx Office | 194.168 | 27.811 | –0.264 |
| 10 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | Pennzoil | 194.049 | 27.828 | –0.281 |
| 11 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | Lowe’s | 192.630 | 28.033 | –0.486 |
| 12 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | Great Clips | 188.547 | 28.640 | –1.093 |
| 13 | 10 | Danica Patrick | Chevrolet | Aspen Dental Chevrolet SS | 194.161 | 27.812 | –0.265 |
| 14 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Ford | Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion | 194.007 | 27.834 | –0.287 |
| 15 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr | Ford | SunnyD Ford Fusion | 193.966 | 27.840 | –0.293 |
| 16 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | McDonald’s | 193.868 | 27.854 | –0.307 |
| 17 | 20 | Matt Kenseth | Toyota | Dollar General | 193.791 | 27.865 | –0.318 |
| 18 | 21 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center | 193.736 | 27.873 | –0.326 |
| 19 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | Dow Coating Materials | 193.722 | 27.875 | –0.328 |
| 20 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | Wurth | 193.625 | 27.889 | –0.342 |
| 21 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | Caterpillar | 193.209 | 27.949 | –0.402 |
| 22 | 95 | Michael McDowell | Chevrolet | Thrivent Financial | 193.009 | 27.978 | –0.431 |
| 23 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | Haas Automation / Monster Energy Chevrolet SS | 192.205 | 28.095 | –0.548 |
| 24 | 83 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | Pink Cosmo Motors Online | 191.489 | 28.200 | –0.653 |
| 25 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | Target / Belkin QP | 191.980 | 28.128 | –0.581 |
| 26 | 34 | Chris Buescher | Ford | Love’s Travel Stops | 191.829 | 28.150 | –0.603 |
| 27 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | Advocare Ford Fusion | 191.544 | 28.192 | –0.645 |
| 28 | 27 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | Valvoline / Menards | 191.530 | 28.194 | –0.647 |
| 29 | 13 | Casey Mears | Chevrolet | GEICO | 191.469 | 28.203 | –0.656 |
| 30 | 44 | Brian Scott | Ford | Jacob Companies | 191.381 | 28.216 | –0.669 |
| 31 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | Chevrolet | 5-Hour Energy | 190.954 | 28.279 | –0.732 |
| 32 | 38 | Landon Cassill | Ford | Rev the Vote / Snapchat | 190.617 | 28.329 | –0.782 |
| 33 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Ford | Smithfield | 190.564 | 28.337 | –0.790 |
| 34 | 23 | David Ragan | Toyota | Dr. Pepper | 190.054 | 28.413 | –0.866 |
| 35 | 7 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | Nikko RC / Toy State Chevrolet | 188.864 | 28.592 | –1.045 |
| 36 | 98 | Cole Whitt | Chevrolet | VYDOX Plus | 186.002 | 29.032 | –1.485 |
| 37 | 46 | Michael Annett | Chevrolet | Pilot Flying J | 185.976 | 29.036 | –1.489 |
| 38 | 32 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | Ford | Can – Am | 185.039 | 29.183 | –1.636 |
| 39 | 55 | Reed Sorenson | Chevrolet | VYDOX Plus | 183.673 | 29.400 | –1.853 |
| 40 | 30 | Josh Wise | Chevrolet | Curtis Key Plumbing | 183.343 | 29.453 | –1.906 |
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