Suarez Wins the Cup Pole at Kentucky

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SPARTA, KY - RIS - Daniel Suarez won the unofficial pole for Saturday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. Suarez went out last in qualifying and posted a lap of 29.254 seconds, 184.590 mph to best his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola for the top spot. It marks Suarez’s second career pole.

“My car has been very fast the entire day,” Suarez said. “I feel that we had probably the fastest car in the last practice and the fastest car in qualifying again. I am very proud of my guys and Ford Performance and Stewart-Haas Racing and everyone that makes this program go. We have been working very hard.”

Almirola was a tick off in running the second fastest lap.  He went around the mile and a half  speedway in 29.382 seconds or 183.799 mph. 

“I feel like this weekend so far we are off to a good start and the cars are fast and driving good,” Almirola said. “We have part one done, we have qualified up front and got ourselves good track position and pit stall selection and good clean air. Now we just have to go put a race together.”

Brad Keselowski, who topped final practice, was third with Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick rounding out the top five.

The pole is pending until the Saturday afternoon inspection.  The full starting grid is posted below.

Provisional qualifying results, Quaker State 400 – Kentucky Speedway
Pos, Driver, Car, Best Time, Best Speed, Gap
1) Daniel Suarez, No. 41 Ford, 29.254 sec, 184.590 mph
2) Aric Almirola, No. 10 Ford, 29.380, 183.799, -0.126 sec
3) Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, 29.437, 183.443, -0.183
4) Kurt Busch, No. 1 Chevrolet, 29.451, 183.355, -0.197
5) Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Ford, 29.458, 183.312, -0.204
6) Daniel Hemric, No. 8 Chevrolet, 29.526, 182.890, -0.272
7) Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Ford, 29.535, 182.834, -0.281
8) Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Toyota, 29.575, 182.587, -0.321
9) Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, 29.580, 182.556, -0.326
10) Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, 29.601, 182.426, -0.347
11) Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, 29.620, 182.309, -0.366
12) William Byron, No. 24 Chevrolet, 29.625, 182.278, -0.371
13) Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, 29.646, 182.149, -0.392
14) Paul Menard, No. 21 Ford, 29.667, 182.020, -0.413
15) Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford, 29.671, 181.996, -0.417
16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, 29.686, 181.904, -0.432
17) Michael McDowell, No. 34 Ford, 29.752, 181.500, -0.498
18) Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, 29.763, 181.433, -0.509
19) Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, 29.776, 181.354, -0.522
20) Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet, 29.779, 181.336, -0.525
21) Erik Jones, No. 20 Toyota, 29.821, 181.080, -0.567
22) Alex Bowman, No. 88 Chevrolet, 29.874, 180.759, -0.620
23) Ryan Newman, No. 6 Ford, 29.887, 180.681, -0.633
24) Matt DiBenedetto, No. 95 Toyota, 29.914, 180.517, -0.660
25) David Ragan, No. 38 Ford, 29.948, 180.313, -0.694
26) Chris Buescher, No. 37 Chevrolet, 29.954, 180.276, -0.700
27) Ty Dillon, No. 13 Chevrolet, 29.985, 180.090, -0.731
28) Bubba Wallace, No. 43 Chevrolet, 30.008, 179.952, -0.754
29) Corey Lajoie, No. 32 Ford, 30.014, 179.916, -0.760
30) Ryan Preece, No. 47 Chevrolet, 30.023, 179.862, -0.769
31) Matt Tifft, No. 36 Ford, 30.172, 178.974, -0.918
32) Bayley Currey, No. 51 Ford, 30.387, 177.708, -1.133
33) Ross Chastain, No. 15 Chevrolet, 30.421, 177.509, -1.167
34) Landon Cassill, No. 00 Chevrolet, 30.533, 176.858, -1.279
35) BJ McLeod, No. 52 Chevrolet, 30.964, 174.396, -1.710
36) Quin Houff, No. 77 Chevrolet, 31.031, 174.020, -1.777

Ron Fleshman with John Davison

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2019, Issue 7, Posted 10:57 PM, 07.12.2019