Kevin Harvick won the pole for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a session that featured drafting.
Harvick turned a lap of 180.517 mph in Friday afternoon’s final round to earn the top spot for Sunday’s third race of the season.
Qualifying Results | Las Vegas Pole Winners
“The fastest car in qualifying trim is fourth,” Harvick said of the first qualifying session using the new Cup Series rules. “I told them before we qualified that the fastest car won’t get the pole today. In the final round it’s going to come down to where you’re at.
“It’s definitely different. We were able to run the bottom coming to second lap there and that got us to the start-finish line just in time to make it. Definitely a little luck involved there.”
Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott actually had faster laps in the final session but they were disallowed they did not cross the start/finish line before time expired.
Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and Daniel Hemric rounded out the top five.
David Ragan, Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Kyle Larson and Joey Logano completed the first 10 qualifiers.
Because the session was the first utilizing the new Cup Series rules package, drivers used a variety of strategies in order to turn a fast lap. Because drafting is such a premium with the new package, drivers waited on pit road until the final minutes of each session in order to position themselves in the pack draft.
“It’s different,” Ryan Blaney said. “It’s really the draft you get. It’s a crap shoot at the end of pit road, no one wants to be first and you just hope you kind of distance yourself right to the car in front of you enough to pull you along. I have nothing great to say. I used to have fun on Fridays and that wasn’t very fun. Holding it wide open isn’t my thing.”
Drivers will have a pair of practice sessions on Saturday to dial their cars in for Sunday’s race.
