Austin Dillon tops Kevin Harvick for Chicagoland Cup pole

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	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	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	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	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	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	Daniel Suarez		Ford	31.287	0.651	172.596
30	95	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	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