Race Weekend Central

Kevin Harvick Wins Cup Pole at Pocono

Despite not making a qualifying run in either of the two practice sessions, Kevin Harvick was quickest when it counted on Saturday, earning the pole for Sunday’s Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Harvick turned a lap of 174.058 mph, more than two-tenths of a second ahead of Joey Logano in second (173.377 mph).

It’s the No. 4 team’s fourth pole of the season (Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Richmond Raceway and Kansas Speedway), tying the amount Harvick had in each of the past two seasons.

Aric Almirola turned the third quickest time (173.164 mph), making it the eighth time he’s qualified inside the top three this season. Erik Jones, who was quickest in final practice, was fourth (173.110 mph), just ahead of Austin Dillon in fifth (172.659 mph).

Jimmie Johnson was sixth in both practice sessions before qualifying sixth for the race, as Kyle Busch, William Byron, Kurt Busch and Daniel Suarez round out the top 10.

Former Pocono winners Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin were 11th and 12th on the board. Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson were 23rd and 29th, respectively, after going to backup cars due to separate crashes in opening practice.

Qualifying Results

The green flag for Sunday’s race is scheduled to go green shortly after 3 p.m. ET. Kyle Busch has won the past two, and three of the past four, races at the Tricky Triangle.

About the author

Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.

Sign up for the Frontstretch Newsletter

A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.

1 Comment
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Echo

Pool time. How many laps till slow witted Dillon falls out of the top ten !
Top twenty !

Share via