After a celebratory hug from son Keelan, Kevin Harvick proved that he was ‘freaky fast’ again in his No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet, scoring the pole for the AAA 400 at the Monster Mile with a speed of 162.933 mph and a time of 22.095 seconds.
This was his first pole at the Monster Mile but the seventh pole of the season. He has six poles combined in his entire career prior to 2014.
“Just really proud of my guys,” Harvick said. “There’s a lot going on with the Chase and they just keep bringing fast cars to the race track. Hopefully tomorrow we can evolve a little bit more. It’s a lot of fun when you unload well.”
“This used to be a huge hurdle for us,” Harvick continued. “We’ve had some bad days here. It’s been a long time but over the last three or four years this has been a good race track for us, been enjoyable and a lot of fun to drive.”
“We just have to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Kyle Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, was second in qualifying with a speed of 162.404 mph and a time of 22.167 seconds, followed by Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, in the third starting spot, with a speed of 162.250 mph and a time of 22.188 seconds.
“So far, so good,” Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, said. “This was a good opportunity to start up front here at Dover. I look forward to this weekend’s chance to bring Interstate Batteries back to Victory Lane.”
This was Busch’s 14th top-10 start of 2014 and his 11th in 20 races at Dover.
Although Hamlin was pleased with his third place starting position, he acknowledged that he will be driving the race of his life hoping to avoid elimination from the Chase competition.
“Obviously excited to start off on a good foot and a good position to start the race,” Hamlin said. “But this is going to be the hardest race that I’m ever going to drive.”
“I have to be as aggressive as I can but this is the most important race of my career at this point. We’ve got to get the job done and I have to do my part to make sure that I’m successful.”
“If we’re going to live to race another day, we have to get past this race.”
While Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski qualified fourth in his No. 2 Wurth Ford and was the highest Ford qualifier, his teammate Joey Logano only secured the sixteenth starting spot.
“We’re strong,” Keselowski said. “The 4 car is a little bit better. We seem to be right there with everyone else or maybe just a touch better, but we’ll keep working on it. We’ve got tomorrow’s practice and we’ve got a good starting spot for Sunday. It’s not a pole, but you can’t always get poles. Still, it’s something to be proud of.”
“We just didn’t go fast enough, I don’t know,” Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford said. “We unloaded pretty far off today and we spent a lot of time on race trim. We got started behind the eight-ball and trying to make that up and didn’t put a great effort into qualifying today, so we’re gonna start a little further toward the back. We’ll just work on it tomorrow and try to make our Shell/Pennzoil Fusion a little better.”
Jamie McMurray, fresh off his streak of three consecutive top-10 runs, rounded out the top-five qualifiers, with a speed of 161.936 mph in his No. 1 McDonalds Chevrolet.
“I really didn’t even know we had advanced to round two after the initial round,” Big Mac said. “We just barely got in, and made some good changes. The car was really loose on that second run. So I was surprised that I ran quicker than I did the first time. The McDonalds Chevy has been really good in race trim, so I am really excited that we qualified well. This is a tough place to pass at. Good pit selection and good starting spot, so off to a good start for the weekend.”
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, qualified seventh, scoring the top starting rookie spot as par for the course.
“I was hoping for a little bit more in qualifying,” Larson said. “We were pretty tight through one and two, which is where we gave up most of our time. Seventh is still not bad. We can get a good pit stall and hopefully have a good race on Sunday.”
Probably the most disappointed of all of the Chase contenders was AJ Allmendinger, who qualified 28th in his No. 47 Hungry Jack/ACME Chevrolet.
“It sucked,” Dinger said of his qualifying effort. “We are just not fast enough.”
The full qualifying order for the 45th Annual AAA 400 is as follows:
2014 NSCS AAA 400 Starting Lineup
| Pos | Car | Driver | Team | Time | Speed |
| 1 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Budweiser Chevrolet | 22.095 | 162.933 |
| 2 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Interstate Batteries Toyota | 22.167 | 162.404 |
| 3 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | FedEx Freight Toyota | 22.188 | 162.25 |
| 4 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Wurth Ford | 22.203 | 162.14 |
| 5 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | McDonald’s Chevrolet | 22.231 | 161.936 |
| 6 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet | 22.281 | 161.573 |
| 7 | 42 | Kyle Larson # | Target Chevrolet | 22.297 | 161.457 |
| 8 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet | 22.319 | 161.298 |
| 9 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | 5-hour Energy Toyota | 22.41 | 160.643 |
| 10 | 3 | Austin Dillon # | Dow Chevrolet | 22.429 | 160.506 |
| 11 | 55 | Brian Vickers | Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota | 22.431 | 160.492 |
| 12 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Farmers Insurance Chevrolet | 22.473 | 160.192 |
| 13 | 10 | Danica Patrick | GoDaddy Chevrolet | 22.333 | 161.196 |
| 14 | 20 | Matt Kenseth | Home Depot Husky Toyota | 22.342 | 161.132 |
| 15 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Mobil1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet | 22.358 | 161.016 |
| 16 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 22.377 | 160.879 |
| 17 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | Twisted Tea Ford | 22.387 | 160.808 |
| 18 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Fastenal Ford | 22.401 | 160.707 |
| 19 | 27 | Paul Menard | CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet | 22.411 | 160.635 |
| 20 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Quicken Loans Design A Scheme Chevrolet | 22.413 | 160.621 |
| 21 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Nathan’s Famous Ford | 22.418 | 160.585 |
| 22 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Haas Automation Chevrolet | 22.426 | 160.528 |
| 23 | 51 | Justin Allgaier # | Brandt Professional Agriculture Chevrolet | 22.437 | 160.449 |
| 24 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Zest Ford | 22.441 | 160.421 |
| 25 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | National Guard Chevrolet | 22.444 | 160.399 |
| 26 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | Furniture Row Chevrolet | 22.48 | 160.142 |
| 27 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Post-it Ford | 22.51 | 159.929 |
| 28 | 47 | AJ Allmendinger | Hungry Jack/ACME Chevrolet | 22.519 | 159.865 |
| 29 | 26 | Cole Whitt # | Uponor Toyota | 22.54 | 159.716 |
| 30 | 13 | Casey Mears | GEICO Chevrolet | 22.613 | 159.2 |
| 31 | 38 | David Gilliland | Long John Silver’s Ford | 22.624 | 159.123 |
| 32 | 98 | Josh Wise | Phil Parsons Racing Chevrolet | 22.749 | 158.249 |
| 33 | 36 | Reed Sorenson | American Muscle Driving Experience | 22.76 | 158.172 |
| 34 | 23 | Alex Bowman # | Dr Pepper Toyota | 22.772 | 158.089 |
| 35 | 7 | Michael Annett # | Cypress HQ Chevrolet | 22.789 | 157.971 |
| 36 | 40 | Landon Cassill(i) | Newtown Building Supplies Chevrolet | 22.91 | 157.137 |
| 37 | 34 | David Ragan | Plimpton & Hills Ford | Owner Points | |
| 38 | 33 | David Stremme | Little Joe’s Autos Chevrolet | Owner Points | |
| 39 | 32 | JJ Yeley(i) | CorvetteParts.net Ford | Owner Points | |
| 40 | 37 | Mike Bliss(i) | Accell Construction Inc. Chevrolet | Owner Points | |
| 41 | 66 | Mike Wallace(i) | Toyota | Owner Points | |
| 42 | 83 | Travis Kvapil | Burger King Toyota | Owner Points | |
| 43 | 44 | Timmy Hill | Phoenix Warehouse Chevrolet | Owner Points |
(i) Ineligible for Driver Points in this Series, # Denotes Rookie, * Required to Qualify on Time
Source: Timing and Scoring provided by NASCAR Media/NASCAR Statistics
– See more at: http://www.catchfence.com/2014/sprintcup/09/26/2014-nscs-aaa-400-starting-lineup/#sthash.OvymXWvG.dpu
