Kevin Harvick scored his second pole of the year for the Sprint Cup Series’ season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Harick put up a top speed of 177.637 mph around the 1.5-mile track to grab the pole for the Ford EcoBoost 400. It’s his 17th Sprint Cup pole.
“That’s awesome, I didn’t know if we had chance for the pole with how fast (Chase Elliott) was running,” Harvick told NBCSN. “I knew in every round that if we could just run the same speed that’s usually half the battle. You never know how much it’s going slow down for everybody else.”
Filling out the top five is Brad Keselowski, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott.
The highest qualifying Chase driver is Kyle Busch in ninth, followed by Carl Edwards in 10th. Joey Logano starts 13th alongside Jimmie Johnson in 14th.
Busch will start in the top 10 for the third straight Homestead race.
“(The car was) really free, we freed up the most of our teammates,” Busch told NBCSN. “We needed to do that. Ultimately, we didn’t qualify were we would have liked to. That was not where I was expecting or hoping for. All things considered you’ve got to look at the big picture. We’re all ninth to 14th. There’s pretty much a blanket there.”
Edwards has started 10th or worse in three of the last four Homestead races.
“I screwed up a little bit,” Edwards told NBCSN. “The car’s so fast and it’s so line sensitive out there. I was probably too aggressive and got on the splitter a little bit. It’s a starting spot. In a way I guess it’s good we’re all back there, but they won’t be back there long, all of us won’t. We’ve got some pretty good race cars.”
Logano will start outside the top 12 for the seventh time this season.
“Was a little free, was a little tight at other times,” Logano told NBCSN. “It’s just hard to get back out there real quick and the tires just don’t want you to go faster.”
With all four Chasers beginning Sunday’s race so close together Logano said he told Johnson “we all sucked.”
In the first round, while outside the top 24, Johnson was in the middle of his second run when the session was red flagged with 57 second left for a spin by Landon Cassill exiting Turn 4. Johnson was on the backstretch and was scored as being slower than he would have needed to make it into the top 24.
Once the track reopened, Johnson was able to begin a lap and advance to the second round with the 22nd-best speed before placing 114th in the final round.
“That was wild, to have the caution come out certainly didn’t help us,” Johnson told NBCSN. “To have tires that old and post a respectable lap is good for the Lowes’ Chevrolet. Unfortunately, was just off on that first run and got behind. I’m so much better at racing.”
In his final Sprint Cup start, Tony Stewart will roll off 11th.
