Kevin Harvick rebounds with Phoenix pole over Chase Elliott

Without his crew chief and car chief for the final two races of the season following a NASCAR penalty this week, Harvick save the fastest lap of the day for the final session of Friday’s qualifying.

Harvick’s average lap speed of 139.340 mph topped Chase Elliott (139.152 mph) and handed him the pole for Sunday’s Can-Am 500 at ISM Raceway near Phoenix.

Harvick had won last weekend’s race at Texas and earned an automatic berth in the Championship 4 but lost that privilege as part of the penalty. He was also stripped of 40 points.

It is still possible for Harvick to advance on points to Homestead but it will be more difficult. Winning Sunday’s race will again lock Harvick into the Championship 4.

“It’s pretty awesome to see a group of people to come together to fill the gap during the suspensions,” Harvick said. “Like I told them over the radio, everybody on this (team) has been there before and we know what we need to do.

“This is a great race track for us. I really wasn’t expecting that – our cars are usually a lot better in race trim than qualifying trim. I just got fortunate to hit a good lap there and it came at a good time.”

Told some would say the wrestler comes out in these situations when he’s back into a corner, Harvick said, “I don’t need to tell you about it, you can look at the scoreboard.”

The pole is Harvick’s fourth of the season and 25th of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was third, Ryan Blaney fourth and Alex Bowman completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 12 starters are Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Paul Menard and Brad Keselowski.

Round 2

Elliott went out early and led the way in the second round with an average lap speed of 139.411 mph – the fastest lap made on the track to this point on Friday.

Larson ended up second (139.066 mph) and Kyle Busch was third (139.055 mph). Hamlin and Menard completed the top-five.

Also advancing to the final round were Bowman, Jones, Harvick, Blaney, Stenhouse, Keselowski and Logano.

Among those failing to advance were Martin Truex Jr., who got knocked out in the final 30 seconds by Keselowski; Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth, Aric Almirola, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman.

“It wasn’t bad,” Bowyer said. “We’ll be alright. We just need a good day tomorrow in practice and we’ll go off on Sunday.”

Round 1

Kenseth ended up the surprise leader of the first 15-minute qualifying session with an average lap speed of 138.313 mph.

Austin Dillon was second (137.936 mph) and Harvick was third (137.625 mph). Kurt Busch was fourth and Kyle Busch ended up fifth.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Stenhouse, Logano, Byron, Keselowski and Jones. Jones had been fastest in Friday’s only practice session.

It took four tries for Truex’s No. 78 Toyota to clear pre-qualifying inspection on Friday, which resulted in the ejection of his car chief for the remainder of the weekend.

Truex finally made it on the track with time to spare and posted the 21st-fastest speed.

Among those who failed to advance to the final round were Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Ty Dillon, Darrell Wallace Jr. and David Ragan.

Cla	#	Driver	4506	Time	Gap	Mph
1	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	25.836		139.340
2	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	25.871	0.035	139.152
3	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	25.898	0.062	139.007
4	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	25.924	0.088	138.867
5	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	25.948	0.112	138.739
6	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	25.954	0.118	138.707
7	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	26.022	0.186	138.344
8	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	26.038	0.202	138.259
9	22	Joey Logano	Ford	26.039	0.203	138.254
10	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	26.040	0.204	138.249
11	21	Paul Menard	Ford	26.108	0.272	137.889
12	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	26.150	0.314	137.667
13	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	26.023	0.187	138.339
14	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	26.053	0.217	138.180
15	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	26.074	0.238	138.069
16	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	26.110	0.274	137.878
17	6	Matt Kenseth	Ford	26.131	0.295	137.767
18	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	26.140	0.304	137.720
19	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	26.162	0.326	137.604
20	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	26.174	0.338	137.541
21	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	26.176	0.340	137.531
22	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	26.212	0.376	137.342
23	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	26.313	0.477	136.815
24	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	26.368	0.532	136.529
25	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	26.342	0.506	136.664
26	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	26.368	0.532	136.529
27	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	26.487	0.651	135.916
28	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	26.516	0.680	135.767
29	95	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	26.539	0.703	135.649
30	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	26.560	0.724	135.542
31	38	David Ragan	Ford	26.614	0.778	135.267
32	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	26.834	0.998	134.158
33	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	26.970	1.134	133.482
34	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	27.001	1.165	133.328
35	23	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	27.010	1.174	133.284
36	97	Tanner Berryhill	Toyota	27.231	1.395	132.202
37	66	Timmy Hill	Toyota	27.457	1.621	131.114
38	7	D.J. Kennington	Chevrolet	27.666	1.830	130.124
39	51	Cody Ware	Ford