The most surprising thing about Kevin Harvick’s pole at Phoenix International Raceway was that it was his first one. Riding a tidal wave that carried him to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title last year and continued with two runner-up finishes and a victory in the first three races of the current season, Harvick toured the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert in 25.577 seconds (140.751 mph) during the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying to win his first Coors Light Pole Award of the season and the 15th of his career. Starting Lineup “Every week’s just a new adventure,” said Harvick after scratching yet another item from his career bucket list. “This particular team in (crew chief) Rodney (Childers) and everybody on the team, even if we’re off, they make great adjustments and just communicate and do the things we have to do to make the car better. “So, we don’t pay a lot of attention to the scoreboard. We just try to make our cars drive as good as we can, and in the end, that’s working out for us right now.” Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch, who qualified eighth in his first event back from a three-race suspension, summed up his view of Harvick’s recent success. “Kevin Harvick is in one of the strongest sequences that I’ve ever seen in this sport,” said the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. Harvick will lead the field to green in Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX) with second-place qualifier Joey Logano (140.543 mph) beside him. For Logano, it’s a familiar spot; the driver of the No. 22 Ford also started on the outside of the first row in the first Phoenix race last year. Logano described his car during time trials as “just a little bit on the snug side.” “I want to be first — second’s just the first loser,” said the 2015 Daytona 500 winner. “But we definitely picked up a lot of speed when we went to qualifying trim.” Logano hopes his team can translate some of that speed into race trim. They’ll have to do so to beat Harvick, who has won the last three races at PIR and four of the last five. “He’s human like anyone else,” Logano said. “He’s beatable, believe me. We just have to figure out the way to do it. I feel plenty confident in my team that we can do it. We have to work hard and try to figure it out. He knows something running here — he just knows what he needs in the race car, whether he’s figuring that out in practice or it is a setup thing. “I doubt it is a setup thing, though, because he has been fast in both cars he has driven here. I think it is something he looks for and a feel that he’s able to maintain his tires throughout a long run. I think that’s what we all strive for, to figure that part out. We have identified that is where he beats us, we have to fix it. Half the battle is figuring out where you are getting beat. We are making strides and I feel like we’re getting closer.” Jamie McMurray qualified third at 140.422 mph, followed by Matt Kenseth (140.072 mph) and Ryan Newman (139.833 mph). Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start 16th and Danica Patrick 23rd. David Ragan, subbing for the injured Kyle Busch in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota, topped the first elimination session in knockout-style qualifying, posting a 138.878 mph lap in the waning seconds of the 15-minute round. Ragan, though, failed to make the cut for the final five-minute session, knocked out by four-time series champ Jeff Gordon at the last second of Round 2 and leaving him with the 13th starting spot. There was early drama further down the board in the opening session, with Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin both posting the 24th-fastest lap at 137.562 mph — identical down to the thousandth of a second. Truex got the final transfer spot into the next qualifying group based on his rank (fourth to Hamlin’s tie for eighth) in Sprint Cup standings, leaving Hamlin eliminated after one round. “We didn’t leave ourselves enough time to make another run, which we shouldn’t have had to do anyway,” said Hamlin, who will start 25th in the fourth Sprint Cup race of the season. “The car was just too loose the first run.” Though delays in the inspection process played havoc with Sprint Cup qualifying the previous two weeks, all 45 cars were at their posts by the 7:50 p.m. ET start time. Tanner Berryhill, hoping to make his Sprint Cup debut, and veteran Travis Kvapil failed to make the 43-car field. source – NASCAR Wire Service
