{"id":16796,"date":"2018-04-28T14:55:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-28T19:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=16796"},"modified":"2018-04-28T16:48:32","modified_gmt":"2018-04-28T21:48:32","slug":"kevin-harvick-edges-teammate-kurt-busch-for-talladega-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/28\/kevin-harvick-edges-teammate-kurt-busch-for-talladega-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Harvick edges teammate Kurt Busch for Talladega pole"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Kevin Harvick<\/strong> hadn\u2019t won a pole at a restrictor-plate track since 2005.<\/p>\n

Kurt Busch<\/strong> had never topped qualifying for a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> race at a superspeedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Beer Flannel Ford, poses with the Busch Pole Award after qualifying for the pole position for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 28, 2018 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Josh Hedges\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

But those two Stewart-Haas Racing Ford drivers were the class of the field during time trials on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, where Harvick outdueled Busch to secure his first Busch Pole Award of the season.<\/p>\n

In the decisive second round, Harvick covered the 2.66-mile distance in 49.247 seconds (194.448 mph) to earn his second Talladega pole and the 22nd of his career. Busch was close behind with a 49.340-second lap (194.082 mph) in the money round.<\/p>\n

The two Fords will start on the front row in Sunday\u2019s GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), ahead of Toyota drivers Martin Truex Jr. (193.525 mph) and Denny Hamlin (192.936 mph), who qualified third and fourth, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no clue as to how fast the car would actually run,\u201d said Harvick, who scored his lone victory at Talladega in 2010. \u201cWe knew we had a fast car, but we didn\u2019t do any qualifying runs (in practice) or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Harvick\u2019s run in the first round was halted when teammate Aric Almirola\u2019s Ford spun out of control with a tire down, and Harvick ran through the debris from the No. 10 Ford.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first indicator was the first time on the race track, and that was even a little bit of a question, because of the fact that we had to change the tires and cool the engine down,\u201d Harvick said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what the pickup in the car was going to be \u2013 or not be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a little bit of a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvick\u2019s pole-winning run in the No. 4 Ford denied Busch a milestone he coveted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been on the pole for a plate race and wanted to check it off,\u201d Busch said. \u201cIt was a bucket-list item. I really wanted the pole today.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut two Stewart-Haas Fords on the front row \u2013 we\u2019d have loved to have gotten the pole, but we\u2019re outside pole, and I\u2019m proud of our Monster Energy Ford.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase Elliott qualified fifth in the fastest Chevrolet (192.754 mph), followed by Erik Jones and defending race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr.. Series leader Kyle Busch, who is seeking a fourth straight Cup victory, failed to advance to the second round and will start 19th.<\/p>\n

Five-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski will start 10th, to the outside of Team Penske teammate Joey Logano.<\/p>\n

Media Center Interviews:<\/h3>\n

Kevin Harvick – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/MENCS_TSS1_Harvick_Pole_042818.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kurt Busch – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/MENCS_TSS1_KuBusch_042818.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – GEICO 500<\/b><\/p>\n

Talladega Superspeedway<\/b><\/p>\n

Talladega, Alabama<\/b><\/p>\n

Saturday, April 28, 2018<\/b><\/p>\n

                  1. (4)  Kevin Harvick, Ford, 194.448 mph.<\/p>\n

                  2. (41)  Kurt Busch, Ford, 194.082 mph.<\/p>\n

                  3. (78)  Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 193.525 mph.<\/p>\n

                  4. (11)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 192.936 mph.<\/p>\n

                  5. (9)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 192.754 mph.<\/p>\n

                  6. (20)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 192.730 mph.<\/p>\n

                  7. (17)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 191.904 mph.<\/p>\n

                  8. (14)  Clint Bowyer, Ford, 191.723 mph.<\/p>\n

                  9. (22)  Joey Logano, Ford, 191.643 mph.<\/p>\n

                  10. (2)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 191.344 mph.<\/p>\n

                  11. (88)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 191.248 mph.<\/p>\n

                  12. (38)  David Ragan, Ford, 191.088 mph.<\/p>\n

                  13. (21)  Paul Menard, Ford, 191.486 mph.<\/p>\n

                  14. (19)  Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 191.478 mph.<\/p>\n

                  15. (43)  Darrell Wallace Jr. #, Chevrolet, 191.313 mph.<\/p>\n

                  16. (48)  Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 191.260 mph.<\/p>\n

                  17. (24)  William Byron #, Chevrolet, 191.187 mph.<\/p>\n

                  18. (31)  Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 191.111 mph.<\/p>\n

                  19. (18)  Kyle Busch, Toyota, 191.103 mph.<\/p>\n

                  20. (34)  Michael McDowell, Ford, 190.993 mph.<\/p>\n

                  21. (6)  Trevor Bayne, Ford, 190.985 mph.<\/p>\n

                  22. (42)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 190.943 mph.<\/p>\n

                 23. (12)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, 190.495 mph.<\/p>\n

                  24. (3)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 190.140 mph.<\/p>\n

                  25. (37)  Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 189.797 mph.<\/p>\n

                  26. (95)  Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 189.767 mph.<\/p>\n

                  27. (1)  Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 189.721 mph.<\/p>\n

                  28. (47)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 189.714 mph.<\/p>\n

                  29. (13)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.645 mph.<\/p>\n

                  30. (62)  Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 188.630 mph.<\/p>\n

                  31. (96)  DJ Kennington, Toyota, 187.232 mph.<\/p>\n

                  32. (92)  Timothy Peters(i), Ford, 187.068 mph.<\/p>\n

                  33. (32)  Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 186.598 mph.<\/p>\n

                  34. (00)  Joey Gase(i), Chevrolet, 186.000 mph.<\/p>\n

                  35. (15)  Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 185.711 mph.<\/p>\n

                  36. (72)  Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 185.187 mph.<\/p>\n

                  37. (23)  Gray Gaulding, Toyota, 183.793 mph.<\/p>\n

                  38. (55)  Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 182.846 mph.<\/p>\n

                  39. (51)  Timmy Hill(i), Ford, 181.891 mph.<\/p>\n

                  40. (10)  Aric Almirola, Ford, 175.372 mph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Kevin Harvick hadn\u2019t won a pole at a restrictor-plate track since 2005. Kurt Busch had never topped qualifying for a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at a superspeedway. But those two Stewart-Haas Racing Ford drivers were the class of the field during time trials on Saturday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[209,95,16,208],"class_list":["post-16796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-geico-500","tag-kevin-harvick","tag-nascar","tag-talladega-superspeedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/mencs_tss1_harvick_pole_042818.jpg?fit=4160%2C2769&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-4mU","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16796"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16808,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16796\/revisions\/16808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}