Kevin Harvick won the pole for today’s Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard.
Harvick scored his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series best fifth pole of 2019. His lap of 185.766 mph around the 2.5-mile track earned Harvick his 30th career pole. His three Indy poles tie Jeff Gordon for the most in track history.
“I just have to thank everyone on our team for everything that they do,” Harvick said after he won the pole. “I thought we had a good car yesterday in race trim. In practice, we never did any qualifying stuff.”
The race will feature this year’s rules package and Harvick believes the lower horsepower and more downforce will definitely impact what happens on track.
“I think clean air is the strategy by handling is going to come into play at some point,” he said. “We saw that after about Lap 10 yesterday, we saw who’s cars were pushing and not pushing. You’re going to have to hang on to them the best that you can in the beginning of a run to be fast.”
Harvick won this race from the pole in 2003.
Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five.
Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney and Aric Almirola completed the first ten qualifiers.
Other notables in the field include Chase Elliott 24th, Martin Truex Jr. 27th, and William Byron 29th. Denny Hamlin qualified 33rd in his first laps in his backup car after his crash in practice on Saturday. Hamlin will have to drop to the rear of the field for the start of the race.
The green flag for the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard is slated to fly at 2:05 p.m. ET.
