Kevin Harvick Earns Pole; Kyle Busch Starts Ahead in the Championship 4

  One year removed from being in position to win the championship, Kevin Harvick won the pole position for the Sprint Cup’s Ford EcoBoost 400 with a lap time of 30.399 seconds.

  Of the Championship 4, Kyle Busch starts ahead of the pack in ninth place. After qualifying in tenth, Championship 4 contender Carl Edwards will start Sunday’s race right next to Busch. Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson will also start right next to each other as they placed 13^th and 14^th, respectively.

  Although he is not competing for a Championship this time, Harvick is following his normal business like any other race weekend.

  “Well, I think for us it’s really the same as it has been.” Harvick said. “You know, you prepare and do all the same things. We’ve done everything the same. Obviously there’s not as much pressure coming into the weekend as there normally would be, and a lot less to do, so that’s a good thing.”

  With Busch starting ahead of his competitors, he is not getting complacent about his starting position.

  “Yeah, it wasn’t certainly the run that we were looking for.” Busch said. “We were wanting to see a little bit better than that, but we were just too free during qualifying. We just kind of missed the balance a little bit and didn’t quite have the confidence that I needed within the car to get more out of it.” He then followed up by saying that it was a “decent qualifying effort” and says that “We are all pretty tight.”

  Being in third of the Championship 4, Joey Logano was not happy with his position, but remained loose and relaxed. In the transition from Johnson’s press conference to Logano’s, Logano jokingly told Johnson “We all sucked out there.” 

  Logano was asked why 13^th sucked and he simply said “Because it’s not first.” Logano followed up by saying “Yeah. We shoot for No. 1. That’s what we shoot for. You know, we all want to be faster than that I’m sure. I’m sure not just the 22 team, everyone wants to be quicker than that when you come here, but the good side is that we’re all around each other, so the penalty of starting back there isn’t too severe because everyone is in the same boat.”

  In last place of the Championship 4, Johnson admitted that qualifying was his Achilles heel during his press conference.

  “But qualifying just isn’t my thing, and I’m so much better at racing, and I’m ready to run the race.” Johnson said.

  The exciting qualifying rounds sets up the show to come in Homestead to crown the Sprint Cup Series Champion.