RICHMOND, Va. — Kevin Harvick won the pole Friday night for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.
Harvick turned a lap at 121.880 mph to edge hometown favorite Denny Hamlin, whose best lap came at 121.847 mph. After several years as the last opportunity for drivers to qualify for the 10-race playoffs, Saturday night’s race marks the first time Richmond is part of the playoffs.
Harvick never practiced for qualifying before winning his third pole of the season.
“We didn’t really fall off. I think that’s part of the game here,” he said. “I think we made some good adjustments on making the car better, and for me just getting more confidence in how fast I could let the car roll and stay in the throttle up off the corner. In the first round we didn’t really know what we had and ran a lap less than a lot of the faster guys.”
The pole is the second for Harvick at Richmond and his 24th in 638 career starts.
Despite not prepping for qualifying, Harvick said he expected to run well.
“I am really pleased with our car in race trim, and we were able to put together three rounds and squeak through in the second round and make good adjustments to the car,” he said.
Points leader and defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. will start third, followed by Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez, Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola and Brad Keselowski, the winner of the last three races in the series. Erik Jones and Kyle Larson round out the top 10.
Hamlin, seeking his first victory of the season after 27 races, will enter the race 16th among the 16 drivers in the championship chase after crashing out of last weekend’s race at Las Vegas. But he’s won three times at the 0.75-mile track about 20 miles from where he grew up.
“I feel like if there’s any racetrack that I have an advantage at, it’s this one,” he said.
XFINITY: Christopher Bell took the lead away from Matt Tifft with 13 laps to go and won the opening race of the series playoffs at Richmond, Virginia.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fourth in what he said would be his only start of the season. Earnhardt retired last year and works as an analyst for NBC Sports.
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS and Hooters reached a three-year agreement to extend the restaurant chain’s primary sponsorship of Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet for three races per year.
The contract covers the 2019-21 seasons. Hooters joined Hendrick as a two-race primary sponsor for Elliott in 2017.
Elliott, 22, earned his third playoff berth in as many seasons this year, and his first career Cup victory at Watkins Glen last month. He has eight top-five finishes and 14 top-10 finishes this season.
Elliott, the son of the 1988 NASCAR champion, Bill Elliott, was the rookie of the year in the Xfinity Series in 2014 and Cup series rookie of the year in 2016.
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