Bank of America 500 qualifying: Kevin Harvick takes the pole
By Ted Fleming
It will be a Stewart-Hass Racing and Hendrick Motorsports front row with Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman being the quickest in qualifying Thursday night.
With a speed of 196.029 mph, Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet copped the pole for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 in qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway Thursday evening. Staring next to him will be Alex Bowman in the No. 88 who missed the top spot by a mere 0.004 seconds. Bowman is subbing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. who is recovering from concussion-like symptoms.
“I just got to the green a little bit better,” Harvick said. “The car was too loose the time before. And I got to the green better. It was good in (Turns) 1 and 2; but I felt like I gave up a little something in (Turns) 3 and 4 coming to the checkered. But, I’ve just got to thank all my sponsors and everybody on this team, Chevrolet and Hendrick engines and chassis for everything that they do and for everything that Stewart-Haas does. This has just been a fun car to drive today. Hopefully we can get it dialed in race trim.”
“Honestly, we didn’t put the greatest lap together,” said Bowman. “In (Turns) 1 and 2, we were a little free in and didn’t really keep it on the bottom like I needed to. Turns 3 and 4 were really good. It means so much for Hendrick Motorsports to take a chance on me for these races. I’m really thankful to be here. I hate that we didn’t get the pole. We were so close. It’s definitely my best starting spot by a bunch, but you’d always like that pole.”
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Qualifying pretty much followed the script of the only practice Sprint Cup drivers had when Harvick and Bowman finished 1-2, however, that’s where the similarity would end. Chase Elliott (17th in practice), Kyle Busch (4th) and Tony Stewart (19th) will round out the top five starters.
Two cars belonging to Chase drivers, Matt Kenseth and Elliott, were caught up in inspection snafus and barely made it out in time to make the first round. Kenseth will start 17th.
Brad Keselowski, who will start 20th, appeared to be a little off his game when he climbed out of the No. 22 Xfinity Ford at the end of practice, just moments before Sprint Cup qualifying began. He sat on the edge of the window for a bit before chatting with Joey Logano although there didn’t seem to be any problem other than a lack of speed in the No. 2.
“We just lacked a little bit of speed in qualifying trim, but the race trim stuff we did today I felt we were really, really fast, so that was encouraging,” Keselowski said. “You want to qualify and race good, but it’s more important to race good, and I think we’ve got a great Ford Fusion to do exactly that.”
HERE IS THE LINEUP FOR THE BANK OF AMERICA 500:
1 – Kevin Harvick
2 – Alex Bowman
3 – Chase Elliott
4 – Kyle Busch
5 – Tony Stewart
6 – AJ Allmendinger
7 – Martin Truex Jr.
8 – Carl Edwards
9 – Denny Hamlin
10 – Joey Logano
11 – Jimmie Johnson
12 – Kasey Kahne
13 – Danica Patrick
14 – Greg Biffle
15 – Ricky Stenhouse
16 – Jamie McMurray
17 – Matt Kenseth
18 – Ryan Blaney
19 – Austin Dillon
20 – Brad Keselowski
21 – Ryan Newman
22 – Michael McDowell
23 – Kurt Busch
24 – Matt DiBenedetto
25 – Kyle Larson
26 – Chris Buescher
27 – Trevor Bayne
28 – Paul Menard
29 – Casey Mears
30 – Brian Scott
31 – Clint Boyer
32 – Landon Cassill
33 – Aric Almirola
34 – David Ragan
35 – Regan Smith
36 – Cole Whitt
37 – Michael Annett
38 – Jeffrey Earnhardt
39 – Reed Sorenson
40 – Josh Wise