Kevin Harvick on pole for Sprint Cup race at Darlington

DARLINGTON, N.C.—Aric Almirola has the record, but Kevin Harvick has the starting spot that counts most after Friday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series knockout qualifying session at Darlington Raceway.

With a lap at 183.479 mph in the five-minute third round of time trials, Harvick won the Coors Light pole for Saturday night's Bojangles' Southern 500 at the egg-shaped 1.366-mile speedway.

The pole was Harvick's first of the season, his first at Darlington and the seventh of his career.

Joey Logano earned the second spot with a lap of 183.049 mph and will start from the front row for the third time in eight Sprint Cup races this season. Almirola qualified third at 182.946 mph after setting a track record in the second of the three rounds.

Marcus Ambrose (182.485 mph) will start fourth Saturday night, followed by Brad Keselowski (182.059 mph) and Jamie McMurray (182.019 mph). Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, series points leader Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Paul Menard and Martin Truex Jr. will start from positions seven through 12 on the grid.

Crew chief, Rodney Childers, himself a former driver, advised Harvick to change his racing line after the first round of time trials.

"I was on the bottom all day in practice, and Rodney felt like that, in order to get the pole, we were going to need to run the top after we ran our first run," Harvick said. "That's the driver in him. That's why he's good to have sitting there watching, because he knows what's going on.

"He can relay--and also having (spotter) Tim Fedewa up on top—-as former drivers, knowing what's going on, they can relay what you need to do. We moved up and picked up in the second (round). I felt like I didn't roll through there fast enough. In the last one, I felt like I rolled through there pretty good."

In the first round, which pared the number of drivers eligible for the pole from 44 to 24, Menard posted a best lap at 183.946 mph, breaking Kurt Busch's previous track record of 181.918 mph, set May 10, 2013.

In round No. 2, Almirola one-upped Menard with a record lap at 184.145 mph on scuffed tires, despite having an electrical short in his No. 43 Ford that forced his team to push-start the car before it rolled onto the track.

"After that first session, when I tried to fire the car up, when I would go to turn the starter on and it would try to engage with the flywheel, the electrical system in the whole car would shut itself down," Almirola said.

"We obviously had a short in our starter or something, and every time we would flick the starter switch on, it would shut the electrical system down, so we had to push-start it the last two sessions. It made it interesting trying to blend on the race track."

In the second session, though, Almirola blended well enough to set the record.

Notes: Logano is the only driver to make the final round of all seven knockout qualifying sessions held so far. ... David Reutimann failed to make the 43-car field. ... Coming off a 43rd-place finish last Sunday at Texas—the result of an early accident—Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start 15th. ... Six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson will take the green flag in 26th place after failing to advance to the second round of knockout qualifying.

Complete Starting Lineup

Starting Spot/Number/Driver

1 #4 Kevin Harvick

2 #22 Joey Logano

3 #43 Aric Almirola

4 #9 Marcos Ambrose

5 #2 Brad Keselowski

6 #1 Jamie McMurray

7 #31 Ryan Newman

8 #18 Kyle Busch

9 #24 Jeff Gordon

10 #11 Denny Hamlin

11 #27 Paul Menard

12 #78 Martin Truex Jr

13 #41 Kurt Busch

14 #55 Brian Vickers

15 #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr

16 #15 Clint Bowyer

17 #42 Kyle Larson

18 #47 AJ Allmendinger

19 #16 Greg Biffle

20 #3 Austin Dillon

21 #99 Carl Edwards

22 #5 Kasey Kahne

23 #14 Tony Stewart

24 #51 Justin Allgaier

25 #20 Matt Kenseth

26 #48 Jimmie Johnson

27 #38 David Gilliland

28 #17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr

29 #98 Josh Wise

30 #7 Michael Annett

31 #13 Casey Mears

32 #34 David Ragan

33 #10 Danica Patrick

34 #23 Alex Bowman

35 #40 Landon Cassill

36 #77 Dave Blaney

37 #33 David Stremme

38 #30 Parker Kligerman

39 #83 Ryan Truex

40 #36 Reed Sorenson

41 #32 Travis Kvapil

42 #26 Cole Whitt

43 #66 Joe Nemechek

Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service