Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Kevin Harvick turns fastest lap at Pocono, then fails inspection

Kevin Harvick continued his roll in NASCAR’s premier series, turning the fastest lap in qualifying Saturday at Pocono Raceway.

But his time was disallowed by NASCAR about 45 minutes later when his car failed prerace inspection, which happened after qualifying as the only official tech session of the Cup weekend.

Harvick, who is coming off a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, would have qualified first for the third time this season and the first time at Pocono.

Kyle Busch was second in the final round (but also had had his time disallowed), followed by Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano.

William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray, Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon rounded out the drivers who advanced to the last round.

Harvick’s No. 4 was the only Stewart-Haas Racing Ford that reached the final round as teammates Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer were eliminated in the second round. Defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. (14th), who won at Pocono last month, also was knocked out of the final 12 late in the second round.

Among those who failed to advance from the first round was Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (30th), who is 28 points behind Alex Bowman for the last provisional playoff spot with six races remaining in the regular season.

“Yeah, the car’s just not driving very good,” Stenhouse told NBCSN’s Marty Snider. “And it has no speed. We’re really just struggling.”