{"id":27264,"date":"2019-07-12T19:08:43","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T00:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=27264"},"modified":"2019-07-12T19:11:28","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T00:11:28","slug":"daniel-suarez-makes-decisive-pole-run-at-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/12\/daniel-suarez-makes-decisive-pole-run-at-kentucky\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Suarez makes decisive pole run at Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

SPARTA, Ky. – Daniel Suarez<\/strong> saved the best for last in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> qualifying on Friday at Kentucky Speedway.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old driver from Monterrey, Mexico, was the last to run a qualifying lap at the 1.5-mile track, and he used the opportunity to Knock Stewart-Haas Racing teammate off the provisional pole for Saturday\u2019s Quaker State 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Daniel Suarez, driver of the #41 Haas Automation Ford, celebrates with the Busch Pole Award after qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart at Kentucky Speedway on July 12, 2019 in Sparta, Kentucky. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Suarez covered the distance in 29.254 seconds (184.590 mph) to beat out Almirola (183.799 mph) for the top starting spot by .126 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car\u2019s been very fast the entire day,\u201d said Suarez, who earned his Busch Pole Award of the season and the second of his career. \u201cWe had probably the fastest car in last practice and the fastest car in qualifying, so I\u2019m very proud of my guys, Ford Performance, Haas Automation\u2014everyone who makes this program possible.<\/p>\n

Suarez, the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, hasn\u2019t won in the Cup series. Suarez would become the first Mexican driver to earn a victory in NASCAR\u2019s premier series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to win so bad,\u201d Suarez said. \u201cI haven\u2019t been in Victory Lane for a while. The last time I was in Victory Lane was in Brazil, and it was in a go-kart race. I have been looking forward to bring a trophy home for a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have very fast cars. Now it\u2019s up to me to make it happen (Saturday) night.\u201d<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/MENCS_SuarezPoleWin_71219.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Three-time Kentucky winner Brad Keselowski went out early, and his speed (183.443 mph) stood up for the third starting spot, as Ford drivers swept the top three spots on the grid and five of the top seven. Kurt Busch (183.355 mph) was fourth in the fastest Chevrolet, and two-time defending race winner Martin Truex Jr. (182.587 mph) qualified eighth in the quickest Toyota.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s our best qualifying effort on a mile-and-a-half (track) this year, so that\u2019s something to be proud of there,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cI didn\u2019t quite have the speed to get to the pole. I\u2019d have liked to have had a later draw. I think there might have been a bit of speed there, but I don\u2019t know if I could have got\u2026 Daniel was a tenth (of a second) and a half\u2026 I might have been able to get a half a tenth or tenth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll in all, a decent run for our Discount Tire Ford Mustang, and happy for (engine builder) Doug Yates and all the Ford guys to have all three of our cars up front with the Fords, but we\u2019ll see what we have (Saturday).\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Harvick qualified fifth, followed by Daniel Hemric, Clint Bowyer and Truex. Austin Dillon was ninth, and two-time Kentucky winner Kyle Busch claimed the 10th starting spot.<\/p>\n

Keselowski, Truex and Kyle Busch are the only former Kentucky winners in the 36-driver field. Front-row starters have won the last three Cup races at the 1.5-mile track, a good omen for Suarez and Almirola.<\/p>\n

UNOFFICIAL Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – 9th Annual Quaker State 400  presented by Walmart<\/b><\/p>\n

Kentucky Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

Sparta, Kentucky<\/b><\/p>\n

Friday, July 12, 2019<\/b><\/p>\n

                  1. (41) Daniel Suarez, Ford, 184.590 mph.<\/p>\n

                  2. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 183.799 mph.<\/p>\n

                  3. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 183.443 mph.<\/p>\n

                  4. (1) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 183.355 mph.<\/p>\n

                  5. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 183.312 mph.<\/p>\n

                  6. (8) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 182.890 mph.<\/p>\n

                  7. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 182.834 mph.<\/p>\n

                  8. (19) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 182.587 mph.<\/p>\n

                  9. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 182.556 mph.<\/p>\n

                  10. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 182.426 mph.<\/p>\n

                  11. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 182.309 mph.<\/p>\n

                  12. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 182.278 mph.<\/p>\n

                  13. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 182.149 mph.<\/p>\n

                  14. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 182.020 mph.<\/p>\n

                  15. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 181.996 mph.<\/p>\n

                  16. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 181.904 mph.<\/p>\n

                  17. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 181.500 mph.<\/p>\n

                  18. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 181.433 mph.<\/p>\n

                  19. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 181.354 mph.<\/p>\n

                  20. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 181.336 mph.<\/p>\n

                  21. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 181.080 mph.<\/p>\n

                  22. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 180.759 mph.<\/p>\n

                  23. (6) Ryan Newman, Ford, 180.681 mph.<\/p>\n

                  24. (95) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 180.517 mph.<\/p>\n

                  25. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 180.313 mph.<\/p>\n

                  26. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 180.276 mph.<\/p>\n

                  27. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 180.090 mph.<\/p>\n

                  28. (43) Bubba Wallace, Chevrolet, 179.952 mph.<\/p>\n

                  29. (32) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 179.916 mph.<\/p>\n

                  30. (47) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, 179.862 mph.<\/p>\n

                  31. (36) Matt Tifft #, Ford, 178.974 mph.<\/p>\n

                  32. (51) Bayley Currey(i), Ford, 177.708 mph.<\/p>\n

                  33. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 177.509 mph.<\/p>\n

                  34. (00) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 176.858 mph.<\/p>\n

                  35. (52) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 174.396 mph.<\/p>\n

                  36. (77) Quin Houff, Chevrolet, 174.020 mph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SPARTA, Ky. – Daniel Suarez saved the best for last in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying on Friday at Kentucky Speedway. The 27-year-old driver from Monterrey, Mexico, was the last to run a qualifying lap at the 1.5-mile track, and he used the opportunity to Knock Stewart-Haas Racing teammate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":27266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[259,282,16],"class_list":["post-27264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-daniel-suarez","tag-kentucky-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/MENCS_SuarezPole_071219.jpg?fit=3625%2C2610&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-75K","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27264","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\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27264"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27269,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27264\/revisions\/27269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}