Harvick edges Newman for Atlanta pole

Less than a week after SHR driver Kurt Busch won the season-opening Daytona 500, his teammate, Kevin Harvick, won the pole for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Harvick’s average lap speed of 190.398 mph in the final round was the fastest lap run by any driver in all three qualifying sessions on Friday night.

Harvick edged Ryan Newman (188.870 mph), who was fastest in Round 2 and second-fastest in Round 1.

Kyle Busch will start third, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fourth and Brad Keselowski fifth.

The rest of the top 12 starters: Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The pole is the 18th of Harvick’s career and second at Atlanta.

“We spent a lot of (in practice) in race trim, just not knowing this package and running Fords. We just threw the qualifying package in there at the end and it was way too tight,” Harvick said.

“It’s just a tremendous credit to Stewart-Haas Racing, winning the Daytona 500 with (Kurt Busch) last week and having all the cars run great. Then to come here and see the progress that we’ve made.

“Over the last few weeks, we’ve been in the simulator, we’ve been in the shop, been in the wind tunnel, cut bodies off. It’s hard to explain how big of a transition this has been for the whole company.”

Harvick also won the most the pole at the most recent intermediate-sized track, last season’s season finale at Homestead, Fla.

Harvick’s lone Atlanta win came in 2001 in his third series start, after he had taken over for the late Dale Earnhardt Sr., who was killed in a wreck on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

Round 2

Roles were reversed from Round 1 with Newman leading the way with an average lap speed of 189.772 mph, just edging Kyle Busch (189.694 mph).

Harvick was third-fastest, Keselowski fourth and Larson fifth.

Also advancing to the final round were Hamlin, Truex, Elliott, Logano, McMurray, Stenhouse and Earnhardt.

Matt DiBenedetto scrubbed the wall during his qualifying lap in Round 2 and his No. 32 Ford will require some repairs.

Round 1

Kyle Busch led the way in the first round of knockout qualifying, posting an average lap speed of 190.280 mph to edge Newman (189.850 mph).

They were followed by McMurray, Hamlin and Harvick,

Michael McDowell, Cole Whitt, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Derrike Cope and Cody Ware all failed to clear pre-qualifying inspection and failed to register a speed in Round 1.

David Ragan slammed the wall during his qualifying lap and his Front Row Motorsports team immediately began making repairs to the car.

Tech issues

At least 20 cars had not cleared inspection by the time the first 20-minute round of qualifying began, including those of Erik Jones, Logano, Clint Bowyer, Michael McDowell and Kasey Kahne.

Atlanta is the first race to debut the 2017 aerodynamic rules package and NASCAR officials said they expected to teams push the limit.

All cars had made it through inspection one time by 5 p.m. ET, approximately 45 minutes before qualifying was scheduled to begin.

“The teams asked for this in the off-season,” said Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s vice president for officiating and technical inspection. “We worked with them. We told them what we were going to do. They asked us to stay consistent — and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”

Sawyer said he wasn’t surprised by the number of cars failing the inspection process. He added most of the delay was in the template station.

“II know they’re pushing it,” Sawyer said “It’s the first downforce race, so we understand that. But the thing that’s really encouraging is the garage has asked us to stay consistent, stay the course and get it fixed.”

Jeffrey Earnhardt's failure to qualify was due to an engine issue in inspection

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	29.118		190.398
2	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	29.199	0.081	189.870
3	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	29.202	0.084	189.850
4	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	29.356	0.238	188.854
5	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	29.367	0.249	188.783
6	22	Joey Logano	Ford	29.374	0.256	188.738
7	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	29.397	0.279	188.591
8	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	29.533	0.415	187.722
9	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	29.534	0.416	187.716
10	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	29.544	0.426	187.652