Kevin Harvick takes pole position for the Southern 500 at Darlington

Harvick dominated all three rounds of knockout qualifying on Saturday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway and closed out the final round with an average lap speed of 177.730 mph.

Harvick actually gained speed from the second (177.511 mph) to third rounds.

Martin Trued Jr. qualified second, Kyle Busch third and Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray completed the top-five.

The pole is Harvick’s fourth this season, 21st of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career and second at Darlington (the other came in 2014).

“I thought I had given some (speed) up in the second round through (Turns) 3 and 4 and that seemed to be our strong point,” he said. “So, I knew if I could just not get it in the corner at the wrong spot, that I had a little bit to get down there and they made the car better.

“This has been a really good race track for us and it’s been a lot of fun this weekend. I just love racing here.”

Harvick said he and his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team have had a “big gap of learning” this season in their transition from Chevrolet to Ford.

“A lot of things have been different and we’ve had to do a lot of things different,” he said. “The workload has been pretty heavy and I’m just really proud of everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing for everything that they’ve done.

“We just keep getting better and better. Hopefully, this is a good sign for tomorrow night.”

Starting sixth through 12th are Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Blaney.

“We’ve been good at starting from second,” Truex said. “Hopefully, we can do it tomorrow night.”

Round 2

Teams rushed out at the start of the second 10-minute session due to the cloud cover over track area.

Once again, Harvick bolted to the top of the speed chart with an average lap speed of 177.511 mph. Jones came in second and managed to stay much closer to Harvick than Kenseth did in Round 1 (177.160 mph).

McMurray was third-fastest, Larson fourth and Kyle Busch fifth. Also advancing to the final round were Keselowski, Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Truex, Logano, Blaney and Kenseth.

All the cars had completed their second-round attempts with more than two minutes to go still remaining in the session.

Among those who failed to advance were Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Clint Bowyer, Chase Elliott, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daniel Suarez and Kasey Kahne.

“We just didn’t have the speed we needed in qualifying,” Earnhardt said “I think all our cars will be great in race trim, though. We were good in practice.”

Round 1

Harvick set a blistering pace in the first 20-minute round, with an average lap speed of 178.187 mph – nearly a mile-an-hour faster than Kenseth (177.192 mph).

Kurt Busch was third-fastest, McMurray was fourth and Austin Dillon was fifth. Sixth through 10th: Truex, Stenhouse, Jones, Logano and Kyle Busch.

Trevor Bayne and Ty Dillon went out very late in the session in an attempt to make the cut for Round 2. Bayne was able to make the Top 24 but Dillon was the first car out after scrubbing the wall.

“I was just trying to hustle to get out there. I knew all my speed was in Turns 1 and 2 and I was probably too aggressive going through Turn 1,” he said. “I over-did it a little but there.”

Among the others who failed to advance to Round 2 were A.J. Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Danica Patrick, David Ragan and Michael McDowell.

All cars passed pre-qualifying inspection prior to the start of Round 1.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	27.669		177.730
2	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	27.771	0.102	177.077
3	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	27.833	0.164	176.682
4	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	27.851	0.182	176.568
5	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	27.874	0.205	176.422
6	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	27.924	0.255	176.107
7	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	27.935	0.266	176.037
8	22	Joey Logano	Ford	27.940	0.271	176.006
9	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	27.954	0.285	175.918
10	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	28.036	0.367	175.403
11	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	28.041	0.372	175.372
12	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	28.097	0.428	175.022
13	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	27.968	0.299	175.830
14	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	28.038	0.369	175.391
15	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	28.048	0.379	175.328
16	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	28.054	0.385	175.291
17	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	28.091	0.422	175.060
18	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	28.097	0.428	175.022
19	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	28.109	0.440	174.948
20	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	28.115	0.446	174.910
21	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	28.155	0.486	174.662
22	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	28.162	0.493	174.618
23	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	28.261	0.592	174.007
24	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	28.309	0.640	173.712
25	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	28.132	0.463	174.804
26	38	David Ragan	Ford	28.146	0.477	174.718
27	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	28.172	0.503	174.556
28	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	28.184	0.515	174.482
29	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	28.301	0.632	173.761
30	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	28.310	0.641	173.705
31	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	28.429	0.760	172.978
32	15	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	28.620	0.951	171.824
33	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	28.631	0.962	171.758
34	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	28.681	1.012	171.458
35	23	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	28.684	1.015	171.441
36	83	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	28.765	1.096	170.958
37	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	28.876	1.207	170.301
38	55	Derrike Cope	Toyota	29.372	1.703	167.425
39	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	29.566	1.897	166.326
40	66	Carl Long	Chevrolet	29.697	2.028	165.592