Qualifying report

NASCAR Cup Chicagoland

Austin Dillon tops Kevin Harvick for Chicagoland Cup pole

Austin Dillon wins his third pole of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season but would like a solid finish to go with it.

Jim Utter

Edited: Jul 1, 2019, 1:25 AM

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Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet Camaro Dow Univar Solutions

Dillon went out midway through Saturday’s qualifying session but his average lap speed of 176.263 mph was enough to hang on to the end and claim the pole for Sunday’s Camping World 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.

It’s the third pole of the year for Dillon and sixth of his career.

His two previous poles this season – at Fontana and Talladega – resulted in 10th and 14th-place finishes, respectively.

“I had a good meeting between first and second practice (Saturday) and had a good idea what we wanted to make changes on, we were able to make them and the car was fast,” Dillon said. “I’m pretty proud of these guys.

“It’s our third pole this year, we just need to translate it to the race. We’ve had four really bad weeks of getting wrecked and having random stuff happening. We need a good run and this is a good way to start it.

“I know no pole-winner has won this race. I hope we can change that this weekend.”

Kevin Harvick ended up second (176.091 mph) and Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing teammate, Daniel Hemric, was third (175.959 mph), which could be another good sign for the organization.

“I feel good about it. I feel that we have a car that drives good,” Dillon said. “We’ve made some good adjustments and got all out of our car we could.”

Jimmie Johnson qualified fourth and Kurt Busch rounded out the top-five.

Finishing the top 10 starters: Clint Bowyer, Michael McDowell, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney.

Bowman and Joey Logano (who qualified 19th) were fastest in Saturday’s two practice sessions.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Time Gap Mph 1 3 United States Austin Dillon Chevrolet 30.636 176.263 2 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 30.666 0.030 176.091 3 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 30.689 0.053 175.959 4 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 30.738 0.102 175.678 5 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 30.759 0.123 175.558 6 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 30.783 0.147 175.421 7 34 United States Michael McDowell Ford 30.788 0.152 175.393 8 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 30.824 0.188 175.188 9 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 30.837 0.201 175.114 10 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 30.841 0.205 175.092 11 24 William Byron Chevrolet 30.869 0.233 174.933 12 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 30.881 0.245 174.865 13 9 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 30.916 0.280 174.667 14 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 30.932 0.296 174.576 15 10 Aric Almirola Ford 30.938 0.302 174.543 16 6 Ryan Newman Ford 30.940 0.304 174.531 17 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 30.967 0.331 174.379 18 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 30.974 0.338 174.340 19 22 United States Joey Logano Ford 31.037 0.401 173.986 20 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 31.067 0.431 173.818 21 20 Erik Jones Toyota 31.070 0.434 173.801 22 36 Matt Tifft Ford 31.084 0.448 173.723 23 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 31.155 0.519 173.327 24 38 David Ragan Ford 31.167 0.531 173.260 25 21 United States Paul Menard Ford 31.170 0.534 173.244 26 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 31.184 0.548 173.166 27 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 31.194 0.558 173.110 28 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 31.253 0.617 172.783 29 41 Mexico Daniel Suarez Ford 31.287 0.651 172.596 30 95 United States Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 31.346 0.710 172.271 31 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 31.452 0.816 171.690 32 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 31.513 0.877 171.358 33 52 Bayley Currey Chevrolet 31.641 1.005 170.665 34 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 31.702 1.066 170.336 35 51 B.J. McLeod Ford 31.901 1.265 169.274 36 77 United States Quin Houff Chevrolet 32.107 1.471 168.188 37 53 Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 32.126 1.490 168.088 38 27 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 32.185 1.549 167.780

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