Brad Keselowski earned the top spot for Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway.
Keselowski earned his third pole of the season with a lap of 127.185 mph. It was the only lap over 127 mph recorded in the session around the .75-mile track.
“I didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t do a qualifying run in practice, but we’ve had phenomenal short-run speed here,” Keselowski explained. “Haven’t necessarily qualified all that well but when the race comes we get the short runs and we can really make some steam.”
The Team Penske driver’s lap or the lineup will not be official until pre-race inspection is held Saturday afternoon prior to the start of the second race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top five.
“It was okay, it was typical Richmond I think,” Busch said. “We practiced really, really similar to how we did here in the spring. We were good when we were out front here in the race, but we had a little bit of trouble passing so we’ll see if we didn’t make some gains on that today.”
Denny Hamlin, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson completed the first 10 qualifiers.
Other Playoff drivers in the field include Kyle Larson (13th), Ryan Blaney (15th), Erik Jones (16th), Ryan Newman (19th), Alex Bowman (20th), William Byron (25th) and Joey Logano (28th).
Motor Racing Network’s coverage of the Federated Auto Parts 400 will start at 6:30 p.m. ET.
