Harvick takes pole for AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

Kevin Harvick will lead Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag in the AAA Texas 500 with the quickest lap of today’s Salute to Veterans Qualifying Day Fueled by Texas Lottery at Texas Motor Speedway.

Harvick wheeled the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Ford to a lap of 28.465 seconds at 189.707 mph on the 1.5-mile asphalt oval. It was Harvick’s sixth pole of 2019 and second in 34 races at Texas Motor Speedway.

 

“I think the key to the lap was, obviously, knowing that you had to be wide open and kind of did a halfway qualifying run yesterday and worked most of the day on race runs and making sure we ran enough laps to know where our car was,” said Harvick. “I think the first pit stall is obviously a good stall to have here for pit road time and the things that go with that and I think it is obviously going to be a track position game like it was last time and hopefully that helps us stay on the right side of that.”

 

Erik Jones will line up the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the outside of Row 1 with a lap of 28.588 at 188.890. The balance of the Top 5 was Denny Hamlin (28.615, 188.712), Kurt Busch (28.657, 188.436), and Alex Bowman (28.669, 188.357).

 

Harvick and Hamlin were the only two of the Round of 8 Playoffs drivers to qualify in the Top 5.

 

The other playoffs drivers qualified as follows:

(12) Kyle Busch/No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota/28.764, 187.735

(13) Kyle Larson/No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet/28.782, 187.617

(14) Chase Elliott/No 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet/28.817, 187.389

(15) Ryan Blaney/No. 12 Team Penske Ford/28.841, 187.233

(17) Martin Truex Jr./No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Ford/28.863, 187.233

 

The AAA Texas 500, the second race in the Round of 8 in the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, is Sunday Nov. 3, at 2 p.m. CT on NBCSN, SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90, and PRN.

 

For season ticket or race information, please visit texasmotorspeedway.com or call the speedway ticket office at 817.215.8500. With an adult ticket purchase, accompanying tickets for children 12-and-under are $10 for the AAA Texas 500 and free for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 playoff race.

TMS PR