Saturday, October 5, 2013

Harvick sets Kansas track record, on first Pole since 2006

Kevin Harvick looking for his first Kansas win
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Kevin Harvick isn't exactly sure why he has not won a pole in his previous 254 Sprint Cup races.

All he knows is he finally snapped a seven-year streak where he did not have the fastest car in qualifying as he captured the top spot Friday for the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday at Kansas Speedway.
The last pole Harvick earned came in the September 2006 event at New Hampshire. He also started from the pole for the July 2010 race at Daytona but is not credited with earning the pole because qualifying was rained out and the field set by points.

"Throughout my career, for whatever reason, we just haven't qualified well," Harvick said. "We always definitely seem to race a lot better than we qualify. Today, we had speed right off the bat and had the confidence in the car to go ahead and push it. ... We've always had better racecars than fast speed cars."

Fastest in the 90-minute practice session prior to qualifying, Harvick turned a lap of 187.526 mph around the 1.5-mile track during time trials Friday and will be joined on the front row by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (187.480). It was just the sixth career earned pole for the Richard Childress Racing driver. He has won three times from the pole, including that Daytona race in July 2010 and the New Hampshire race 255 races ago.

"It matters -- I shouldn't say (winning a pole) doesn't matter," Harvick said. "It definitely helps to have the first pit stall and to have the track position, especially on a weekend like this where track position is going to be probably king as we go through the weekend."

Read More Here.....Sporting News


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