Kevin Harvick puts No. 4 Chevrolet on pole at Darlington
Apr. 11, 2014
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
DARLINGTON,
N.C.—Aric Almirola has the record, but Kevin Harvick has the starting
spot that counts most after Friday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
knockout qualifying session at Darlington Raceway.
With
a lap at 183.479 mph in the five-minute third round of time trials,
Harvick won the Coors Light pole for Saturday night's Bojangles'
Southern
500 at the egg-shaped 1.366-mile speedway.
The pole was Harvick's first of the season, his first at Darlington and the seventh of his career.
Joey
Logano earned the second spot with a lap of 183.049 mph and will start
from the front row for the third time in eight Sprint Cup races this
season. Almirola qualified third at 182.946 mph after setting a track
record in the second of the three rounds.
Marcus
Ambrose (182.485 mph) will start fourth Saturday night, followed by
Brad Keselowski (182.059 mph) and Jamie McMurray (182.019 mph). Ryan
Newman, Kyle Busch, series points leader Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin,
Paul Menard and Martin Truex Jr. will start from positions seven through
12 on the grid.
Crew
chief, Rodney Childers, himself a former driver, advised Harvick to
change his racing line after the first round of time trials.
"I
was on the bottom all day in practice, and Rodney felt like that, in
order to get the pole, we were going to need to run the top after we ran
our first run," Harvick said. "That's the driver in him. That's why
he's good to have sitting there watching, because he knows what's going
on.
"He
can relay--and also having (spotter) Tim Fedewa up on top—-as former
drivers, knowing what's going on, they can relay what you need to do. We
moved up and picked up in the second (round). I felt like I didn't roll
through there fast enough. In the last one, I felt like I rolled
through there pretty good."
In
the first round, which pared the number of drivers eligible for the
pole from 44 to 24, Menard posted a best lap at 183.946 mph, breaking
Kurt
Busch's previous track record of 181.918 mph, set May 10, 2013.
In
round No. 2, Almirola one-upped Menard with a record lap at 184.145 mph
on scuffed tires, despite having an electrical short in his No. 43 Ford
that forced his team to push-start the car before it rolled onto the
track.
"After
that first session, when I tried to fire the car up, when I would go to
turn the starter on and it would try to engage with the flywheel,
the electrical system in the whole car would shut itself down,"
Almirola said.
"We
obviously had a short in our starter or something, and every time we
would flick the starter switch on, it would shut the electrical system
down, so we had to push-start it the last two sessions. It made it
interesting trying to blend on the race track."
In the second session, though, Almirola blended well enough to set the record.
Notes:
Logano is the only driver to make the final round of all seven knockout
qualifying sessions held so far. ... David Reutimann failed to make
the 43-car field. ... Coming off a 43rd-place finish last Sunday at
Texas—the result of an early accident—Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start
15th. ... Six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson will take the green
flag in 26th place after failing to advance to the
second round of knockout qualifying.
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