Daniel Hemric surprises with Kansas pole; Harvick to start last

Daniel Hemric’s average lap speed of 178.047 mph was set early in Saturday’s qualifying but it stood up and earned him the pole for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 – the first pole of his Cup series career.

“This is pretty special. It was a little crazy because I got out of the car and I thought I’d be fifth to eighth,” said Hemric, who will not return to Richard Childress Racing’s No. 8 Chevrolet next season. “Everyone on this team has done a great job all year no matter what’s thrown at them, just rising to the occasion. 

“They come to the race track every week ready to go to work. With everything going on around us, you can get lost and distracted in things but to know these guys have had my back through all of it has meant the world to me.

“Hopefully there are many more years of my Cup future down the road.”

Joining Hemric on the front row will be David Ragan (177.842 mph), which is by far his best start of the 2019 season. His previous best was sixth at Las Vegas back in March.

Last weekend’s race winner, Ryan Blaney, ended up third (177.754 mph). Blaney is also the top qualifying driver remaining in the NASCAR playoffs.

Brad Keselowski, who won this race in the spring, was fourth and Kyle Larson, completed the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 starters are Michael McDowell, Ryan Newman, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon and Bubba Wallace.

Kevin Harvick was not allowed to qualify as ended up failing pre-qualifying inspection three times. He will start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.

Harvick’s No. 4 Ford failed once and actually passed the second time but his team noticed a problem with the driveshaft they wanted to fix sto they essentially failed themselves in order to make the adjustment.

After making the adjustment, Harvick’s crew took his car through inspection again and failed a third time before eventually passing. Car chief Robert Smith was ejected from the track and the team will lose 15 minutes of practice time next week at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

“We just failed it at the wrong time,” Harvick said. “The driveline was dragging the tunnel at qualifying ride height and we didn’t feel comfortable sending the car out on the race track. So, we took the car out of inspection on our own and then it failed inspection at the wrong time for (rear) toe, which we didn’t think we were close on.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	30.329		178.047
2	38	David Ragan		Ford	30.364	00.035	177.842
3	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	30.379	00.050	177.754
4	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	30.394	00.065	177.667
5	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	30.399	00.070	177.637
6	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	30.408	00.079	177.585
7	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	30.423	00.094	177.497
8	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	30.446	00.117	177.363
9	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	30.448	00.119	177.352
10	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	30.452	00.123	177.328
11	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	30.464	00.135	177.258
12	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	30.465	00.136	177.253
13	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	30.476	00.147	177.189
14	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	30.497	00.168	177.067
15	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	30.518	00.189	176.945
16	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	30.520	00.191	176.933
17	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	30.544	00.215	176.794
18	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	30.548	00.219	176.771
19	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	30.573	00.244	176.626
20	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	30.575	00.246	176.615
21	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	30.605	00.276	176.442
22	21	Paul Menard		Ford	30.612	00.283	176.401
23	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	30.631	00.302	176.292
24	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	30.634	00.305	176.275
25	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	30.742	00.413	175.655
26	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	30.803	00.474	175.308
27	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	30.879	00.550	174.876
28	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	30.880	00.551	174.870
29	22	Joey Logano		Ford	30.912	00.583	174.689
30	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	31.004	00.675	174.171
31	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	31.086	00.757	173.712
32	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	31.277	00.948	172.651
33	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	31.365	01.036	172.166
34	27	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	31.378	01.049	172.095
35	52	Garrett Smithley		Ford	31.386	01.057	172.051
36	51	J.J. Yeley		Ford	31.494	01.165	171.461
37	53	Josh Bilicki		Ford	31.787	01.458	169.881
38	77	Timmy Hill		Chevrolet	32.079	01.750	168.334
39	66	Joey Gase		Toyota	33.190	02.861	162.700
40	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford