Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway
Qualifying Results
• Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet SS team laid down a lap time of 46.215 seconds and a speed of 194.742 mph in Sunday afternoon’s Daytona 500 qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway. The effort placed Harvick 25th-fastest on the time sheet and resulted in a 13th-place starting position in the first Budweiser Duel race at the 2.5-mile superspeedway on Thursday.
• Teams had two practice sessions on Saturday to make single-cars runs in preparation for Sunday’s qualifying session. In the first session the No. 29 team made four mock-qualifying runs, posting a fast lap time of 46.251 seconds and a speed of 194.590, which put Harvick 12th on the speed chart. They made three runs in the second practice and Harvick’s fastest lap of the session clocked in 46.454 seconds with a speed of 193.740 mph, placing him 27th-fastest.
• Danica Patrick scored the pole award for the Daytona 500. Her 45.817-second lap time and speed of 196.434 mph earned Patrick the distinction of becoming the first female driver to win a pole award in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history. Jeff Gordon, Trevor Bayne, Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart completed the fastest five in Daytona 500 qualifying.
• NSCS teams have two practices on Wednesday at noon and 2:30 p.m. SPEED will air live coverage of both sessions.
Harvick on his Daytona 500 qualifying effort:
“We knew that our lap wasn’t going to be great today. We felt like our car for whatever reason the speed was a little off in single car runs. All in all it’s really about putting ourselves in position in the Budweiser Duel on Thursday to get a decent spot for the (Daytona 500) and hopefully be around at the end to have a chance to win the race.”