It was a fitting end to an emotional day as Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick scored his sixth pole of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Friday evening at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Earlier Friday team co-owner Tony Stewart made his return to NASCAR after missing three races due to a tragic accident at a dirt track in Upstate New York. After the second round of the three round qualifying session, Stewart gave some advice to his driver. Harvick went out second in the final five minute round and put down a lap of 29.118 seconds, 190.398 mph to win the pole for Sunday night’s Oral-B USA 500.
“After the second run he went out and radioed to me that I needed to go back and do what I was doing in practice,” Harvick said. “Just good to have that reassurance on the radio next to you.”
Aric Almirola led the first sessions, Matt Kenseth the second, but Harvick’s lap in the final five minutes earned him his 12th NASCAR Sprint Cup career pole. MORE>>>
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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