Daniel Hemric surprises with Kansas pole; Harvick to start last
It’s front row of career and season-best starts for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.
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 |
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