AVONDALE, Ariz. – Resilient Kevin Harvick bounced back at his best track, winning the pole position for Sunday’s Can-Am 500 at ISM Raceway and putting behind him a penalty that threatened his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship chances.
Harvick, a nine-time Phoenix winner, toured the newly configured one-mile track in 25.386 seconds to run the fastest lap in the three-round knockout qualifying session at 139.340 mph to edge fellow Playoff driver Chase Elliott (139.152 mph) for the top starting spot in Round of 8 elimination race.
Harvick lost 40 points and the services of crew chief Rodney Childers and car chief Bob “Cheddar” Smith for the final two races of the season for an infraction involving the placement of the rear spoiler on last Sunday’s race-winning car at Texas Motor Speedway.
The penalty also wiped out Harvick’s automatic qualification for the Nov. 18 Championship 4 event at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Nevertheless, Harvick enters Sunday’s race with a three-point edge over Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch, with three of four berths in the Championship race still on the line.
“I just deal with the facts,” Harvick said. “I know where we are, I know what our plan is, and we don’t look back.”
Harvick had veteran Tony Gibson on his pit box in lieu of Childers.
“Everyone went smooth,” said Harvick, who won his second Busch Pole Award at Phoenix, his fourth of the season and the 25th of his career. “I think, as you guys are quickly figuring out, it’s more about people than it is about cars.
“We’ve got a lot of good people and, obviously, a lot of experience with Tony, and those guys did a great job filling roles. You can’t drive a slow car fast, and you can’t beat good people.”
Though Elliott posted his best qualifying effort of the Playoffs so far, he seemed disappointed with his second-place starting position.
“Yeah, unfortunately not good enough,” Elliott said. “The guys brought me a great NAPA Chevy this week and one of these days I’ll figure out how to qualify on a non-plate track, maybe. I had a car to do it today, and I didn’t get it done. So, we’ll go to work on Sunday.”
Elliott starts Sunday’s race 17 points behind Harvick for the final spot in the Championship 4.
Playoff drivers Kyle Busch and Joey Logano earned the sixth and ninth spots on the grid, respectively, but four Playoff drivers failed to advance to the final round. Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola, both in must-win situations, will start from the 16th and 18th positions.
Kurt Busch qualified 14th, one spot behind Martin Truex Jr., who needs to score 34 points to clinch a spot in the Championship 4. Truex failed to advance to the final round by .003 seconds.
“This seems to be kind of par for the course for us lately,” Truex said. “I’d say 13th is a pretty good starting spot for the day we’ve had. We really didn’t get a crack at anything in practice and we didn’t have much time to get ready for qualifying and we were pretty far off.
“Made some good gains for sure. I wish we could have ran again. I definitely feel like I could pick up some more, we were pretty tight. We’ll start 13th and get to work tomorrow.”
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. will start third on Sunday, followed by Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman.
WDUN will have live MRN Radio coverage of the NASCAR race weekend at ISM Raceway beginning with Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series Trusted To Perform 200 beginning at 3 pm on 102.9 FM and streaming live on AccessWDUN. Action continues on Sunday with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Can-Am 500 at 1:30 pm on 102.9 FM and streaming live on AccessWDUN.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
ISM Raceway – Avondale, AZ
Can-Am 500 – November 9, 2018
Friday’s Qualifying Results
1. (4) Kevin Harvick (P), Ford, 139.340 mph.
2. (9) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 139.152 mph.
3. (17) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 139.007 mph.
4. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 138.867 mph.
5. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 138.739 mph.
6. (18) Kyle Busch (P), Toyota, 138.707 mph.
7. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 138.344 mph.
8. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 138.259 mph.
9. (22) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 138.254 mph.
10. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 138.249 mph.
11. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 137.889 mph.
12. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 137.667 mph.
13. (78) Martin Truex, Jr. (P), Toyota, 138.339 mph.
14. (41) Kurt Busch (P), Ford, 138.180 mph.
15. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 138.069 mph.
16. (14) Clint Bowyer (P), Ford, 137.878 mph.
17. (6) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 137.767 mph.
18. (10) Aric Almirola (P), Ford, 137.720 mph.
19. (24) William Byron #, Chevrolet, 137.604 mph.
20. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 137.541 mph.
21. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 137.531 mph.
22. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 137.342 mph.
23. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 136.815 mph.
24. (47) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 136.529 mph.
25. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 136.664 mph.
26. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 136.529 mph.
27. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 135.916 mph.
28. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 135.767 mph.
29. (95) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 135.649 mph.
30. (43) Darrell Wallace, Jr. #, Chevrolet, 135.542 mph.
31. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 135.267 mph.
32. (00) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 134.158 mph.
33. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 133.482 mph.
34. (72) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 133.328 mph.
35. (23) J.J. Yeley(i), Toyota, 133.284 mph.
36. (97) Tanner Berryhill, Toyota, 132.202 mph.
37. (66) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, 131.114 mph.
38. (7) D.J. Kennington(i), Chevrolet, 130.124 mph.
39. (51) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
