Qualifying Results
• Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet SS team will start first in Saturday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 after scoring the pole award with a lap time of 26.802 seconds and a speed of 183.479 mph in the final round of qualifying on Friday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
• Harvick was 16th fastest in the first round of qualifying and advanced with the top-24 cars to round two. He finished fourth the second round and moved on to round three, during which he posted the fastest lap time among the top-12 drivers.
• Harvick’s pole win at Darlington Raceway marks the seventh time he has earned the award in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Marcos Ambrose and Brad Keselowski complete the top-five starting positions for the race.
• Teams had two practice sessions on Friday prior to qualifying and the No. 4 Budweiser team used both sessions to adjust the car’s qualifying and race setups. Harvick was fastest in first practice and finished 29th during the final session.
Harvick on his pole award at Darlington Raceway:
“I was on the bottom all day in practice and Rodney (Childers, crew chief) felt like in order to get the pole you were going to need to run the top after we ran our first run. That is the driver in him. That is why he is good to have sitting there watching, because he knows what is going on and he can relay. Also having Tim Fedewa up on top as a former driver knowing what is going on to relay what you need to do. We moved up and picked up in the second one, felt like I didn’t roll through there fast enough and in the last one felt like I rolled through there pretty good. It all worked out. Knockout qualifying paid off for us today. We were able to save the best for last.”
What would it mean to win here at Darlington?
“This is one of those I guess what we would refer to as a crown jewel race. The one that is not sitting in our trophy case, so not only that but it’s just Darlington and this is what NASCAR racing is all about. To win here would mean a lot. Hopefully we can keep it together for 500 miles. I believe we have a really fast car and everything has gone well all weekend.”
The following is the starting position of the other SHR teams in Saturday's race:
• Kurt Busch and the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet team will start 13th.
• Tony Stewart and the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Chevrolet team will start 23rd.
• Danica Patrick and the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet team will start 33rd.
Race Coverage Information:
FOX will provide live coverage of Saturday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 race starting at 6 p.m. ET. MRN Radio affiliates and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will provide the live radio broadcast.