Rain puts Harvick on pole at Richmond

Kevin Harvick’s fastest time in practice has seen him earn pole position at Richmond after qualifying was rained out.

With rain threatening, all teams put an extra effort into Friday morning’s opening practice with Harvick quickest from Joey Logano.

Although Harvick is the points leader, his qualifying average of 11th in the time trials has seen him have to work to the front in the races.

“We had decided to come into the weekend and approach qualifying a little bit different, with just the way the race tracks have been and the timing of the practices,” said Harvick.

“We decided to go and take advantage of being the first car on the race track, which is usually a big advantage here when the track is green and doesn’t have a lot of rubber on it.

“It worked out today. It’s going to be interesting just for the fact that, the second and third times out, the times weren’t near what the first time was because the tyres fall off — which is great.”

Tony Stewart, who is making his return to the Sprint Cup after injury, will start from 18th.

Cole Whitt failed to make the 40-car field as he was slowest of the cars that needed to qualify on time in the practice session.

QUALIFYING: Toyota Owners 400 – Richmond International Raceway

POS.	CAR #	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	MPH	TIME	GAP
1	4	Kevin Harvick		Busch Light	129.069	20.919	Leader
2	22	Joey Logano		Shell Penzoil	128.694	20.980	–0.061
3	48	Jimmie Johnson		LOWE’S PRO SERVICES	128.187	21.063	–0.144
4	19	Carl Edwards		XFINITY	128.181	21.064	–0.145
5	11	Denny Hamlin		FedEx Ground	128.156	21.068	–0.149
6	2	Brad Keselowski		Thomas Built Buses	128.011	21.092	–0.173
7	41	Kurt Busch		Monster Energy / Haas Automation	127.799	21.127	–0.208
8	5	Kasey Kahne		Mountain Dew	127.334	21.204	–0.285
9	18	Kyle Busch		Banfield	127.298	21.210	–0.291
10	47	AJ Allmendinger		Kroger/Bush’s Beans	127.220	21.223	–0.304
11	3	Austin Dillon		AAA	127.208	21.225	–0.306
12	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr		Fifth Third Bank Ford Fusion	125.517	21.511	–0.592
13	20	Matt Kenseth		Dollar General	125.307	21.547	–0.628
14	31	Ryan Newman		Grainger	124.913	21.615	–0.696
15	42	Kyle Larson		Target	124.861	21.624	–0.705
16	6	Trevor Bayne		Advocare Ford Fusion	124.775	21.639	–0.720
17	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr		Mountain Dew	124.775	21.639	–0.720
18	14	Tony Stewart		Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel Economy	124.700	21.652	–0.733
19	16	Greg Biffle		Cheez-It Ford Fusion	124.527	21.682	–0.763
20	44	Brian Scott		Albertsons Co. / Shore Lodge	124.516	21.684	–0.765
21	10	Danica Patrick		Nature’s Bakery	124.487	21.689	–0.770
22	78	Martin Truex Jr		Furniture Row	124.481	21.690	–0.771
23	24	Chase Elliott		Mountain Dew	124.464	21.693	–0.774
24	43	Aric Almirola		Smithfield	124.064	21.763	–0.844
25	13	Casey Mears		GEICO	123.734	21.821	–0.902
26	27	Paul Menard		Duracell / Menards	123.598	21.845	–0.926
27	1	Jamie McMurray		Credit One Bank	123.553	21.853	–0.934
28	38	Landon Cassill		The Pete Store	123.125	21.929	–1.010
29	*21	Ryan Blaney		Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire + Auto Center	122.566	22.029	–1.110
30	23	David Ragan		sweetFrog	122.266	22.083	–1.164
31	*30	Josh Wise		Curtis Key Plumbing	121.995	22.132	–1.213
32	95	Michael McDowell		WRL General Contractors	121.990	22.133	–1.214
33	34	Chris Buescher		A&W All American Food	121.891	22.151	–1.232
34	7	Regan Smith		APC Chrevrolet	121.496	22.223	–1.304
35	*55	Reed Sorenson		ChampionMachinery.com	121.250	22.268	–1.349
36	83	Matt DiBenedetto		E.J. Wade Construction	121.131	22.290	–1.371
37	*93	Ryan Ellis		ScienceLogic	120.182	22.466	–1.547
38	*98	Cole Whitt		TBA	119.660	22.564	–1.645
39	32	Jeffrey Earnhardt		CorvetteParts.net	119.458	22.602	–1.683
40	15	Clint Bowyer		5-Hour Energy	117.842	22.912	–1.993
41	46	Michael Annett		Pilot Flying J	0.000	0.000	-20.919

 * Cars required to qualify on speed

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