Kevin Harvick's "closer" nickname may have become overused over the past few years for his ability to gain positions late in races. However, he hasn't had a qualifying nickname, at least one that's caught on, and if he did, it certainly wouldn't be about his proclivity to accumulate pole positions.
Harvick qualified first for Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway, for just the sixth time in his career. His last pole came over seven years ago at New Hampshire in 2006. That's just 254 races.
He was one of the fastest cars during Friday morning's practice session and backed it up, knocking Ricky Stenhouse Jr. off the top spot. Jimmie Johnson, second in the points standings, qualified third, while Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was sixth and points leader Matt Kenseth qualified seventh. The rest of the Chasers went like this: Carl Edwards was ninth, Jeff Gordon was 14th, Kasey Kahne was 15th, Ryan Newman was 17th, Kyle Busch was 18th, Kurt Busch was 19th, Clint Bowyer was 22nd and Greg Biffle was 26th.
Eugene Chaboud Jay Chamberlain Karun Chandhok Alain de Changy
