Kevin Harvick wins pole at Las Vegas in wild final round

Harvick emerged as the pole-winner for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott who actually went faster, failed to cross the line before the five-minute clock expired.

Harvick’a average lap speed of 180.517 mph ended up topping Denny Hamlin (180.457 mph). They were the only two drivers to cross the 180 mph barrier in a session where all 12 of the final drivers waited until the final 90 seconds to attempt a run.

Kyle Busch ended up third, Austin Dillon fourth and Daniel Hemric fifth.

The pole is Harvick’s first of the season and 26th of his career.

“The fastest car in qualifying trim is fourth (Dillon). I told them before we qualified today that the fastest car would not get the pole today,” Harvick said. “In the final round it was going to come down to where you were at.

“It’s definitely different. It’s one of those situations where you don’t really know where you need to be. I had never drafted, really, in these cars. They are a lot faster than they were in the All-Star Race (last year) and the close up rate was so fast.

“We were able to run the bottom coming to the start of the second lap and that got us to the start/finish line in time to make it (count). Definitely a little bit of luck involved there but the guys have done a great job, really advancing in the last two weeks in getting what we need in these race cars.”

Rounding out the Top 12 will be David Ragan, Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Bowman and Elliott.

Round 2

Harvick bolted to top of speed chart in the second round.

His top average speed of 181.123 mph just edged Austin Dillon (181.111 mph). Larson was third (180.427 mph). Bowman and Stenhouse completed the top-five.

Also advancing to the final round were Kyle Busch, Johnson, Ragan, Elliott, Hamlin, Logano and Hemric.

Among those who failed to advance were Ryan Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Ty Dillon and Martin Truex Jr.

“I think some of this will apply to Sunday, but I really don’t know,” Keselowski said. “I just want to go fast.”

Said Ty Dillon: “I don’t know if any of us knew what to do.”

Blaney was also not happy with how the session unfolded. “I used to have fun on Fridays and that wasn’t fun,” he said.

Round 1

Austin Dillon, who was fastest in Friday’s practice, continued his show of speed in the first round of knockout qualifying.

Dillon led the way with an average lap speed of 179.964 mph in the 10-minute session.

Larson ended up second (179.820 mph) and Stenhouse was (179.712 mph) third. Logano was fourth and Hemric fifth.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Blaney, Bowman, Hamlin, Jones and Ty Dillon.

Several drivers attempted to draft during the session to pick up speed. Results were varied as Austin Dillon’s top speed came from a single-car run.

Among those who failed to advance to Round 2 were Aric Almirola, Matt DiBenedetto, Chris Buescher, Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch.

“My politically correct answer is that was interesting,” DiBenedetto said of the drafting during the round. “It reminds me of when we tried group qualifying on the superspeedways.”

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	29.914		180.517
2	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	29.924	0.010	180.457
3	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	30.049	0.135	179.706
4	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	30.082	0.168	179.509
5	8	Daniel Hemric	Chevrolet	30.087	0.173	179.480
6	38	David Ragan	Ford	30.092	0.178	179.450
7	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	30.131	0.217	179.217
8	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	30.234	0.320	178.607
9	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	30.255	0.341	178.483
10	22	Joey Logano	Ford	30.356	0.442	177.889
11	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	30.504	0.590	177.026
12	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	30.533	0.619	176.858
13	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	30.055	0.141	179.671
14	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	30.061	0.147	179.635
15	21	Paul Menard	Ford	30.071	0.157	179.575
16	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	30.082	0.168	179.509
17	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	30.096	0.182	179.426
18	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	30.101	0.187	179.396
19	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	30.132	0.218	179.211
20	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	30.163	0.249	179.027
21	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	30.168	0.254	178.998
22	41	Daniel Suarez	Ford	30.169	0.255	178.992
23	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	30.174	0.260	178.962
24	47	Ryan Preece	Chevrolet	30.344	0.430	177.959
25	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	30.283	0.369	178.318
26	95	Matt DiBenedetto	Toyota	30.296	0.382	178.241
27	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	30.300	0.386	178.218
28	1	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	30.310	0.396	178.159
29	6	Ryan Newman	Ford	30.329	0.415	178.047
30	32	Corey Lajoie	Ford	30.458	0.544	177.293
31	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	30.626	0.712	176.321
32	96	Parker Kligerman	Toyota	30.640	0.726	176.240
33	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	31.324	1.410	172.392
34	52	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	31.820	1.906	169.705
35	36	Matt Tifft	Ford	32.450	2.536	166.410
36	66	Joey Gase	Toyota	33.864	3.950	159.461
37	77	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet
38	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet