Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen International
Qualifying Results
Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet SS team will start Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 from the fourth position after posting a lap time of 68.447 seconds and a speed of 128.859 mph in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session at Watkins Glen International.
Teams had two rounds of qualifying at the 2.45-mile road course. In the first 30-minute session, Harvick’s first qualifying attempt was aborted after another driver interfered with his lap. The team cooled down the car and got Harvick back on track to make another run. He posted the second-fastest lap of the first round and advanced with the rest of the top 12 to the final round. Harvick made two qualifying attempts in the final, 10-minute round and the second run put the team fourth on the speed chart.
Jeff Gordon scored the pole award for Sunday’s race with a fast lap of 68.126 seconds and a speed of 129.466 mph. Marcos Ambrose, Jimmie Johnson, Harvick and Kurt Busch complete the top-five positions.
On Friday, teams had two practice sessions to prepare for qualifying and the race. Harvick ended the first session with two mock-qualifying runs that put him first on the speed chart. The No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet team focused solely on race trim in final practice while most of the field made qualifying runs. That put Harvick 28th on the board in the session after completing a total of 32 laps.
Harvick on qualifying at Watkins Glen International:
“I didn’t really put a whole lap together. The car was really good and I just didn’t get everything out of it that I needed to get the pole. It was still a solid effort by our Budweiser team and we ended up with a really good starting position. From there we should be able to hopefully race up front all day.”
The following is the starting position of the other SHR teams in Sunday's race:
Kurt Busch and the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet team will start fifth.
Tony Stewart and the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobile 1 Chevrolet team will start 13th.
Danica Patrick and the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet team will start 43rd.
Race Coverage Information:
ESPN will provide live coverage of Sunday’s race at 1 p.m. ET. MRN Radio affiliates and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will provide the live radio broadcast.