Kevin Harvick will start first at Charlotte
Kevin Harvick’s lap in the final round of qualifying beat out Alex Bowman for the top starting spot for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte.
Harvick posted a lap of 196.029 MPH, narrowly nudging Bowman’s lap of 196.000 MPH. Bowman is in the No. 88 car substituting for Dale Earnhardt Jr. the rest of the season save for Martinsville. Earnhardt Jr. is out for the season because of a midseason concussion.
Harvick finished second at Charlotte in the spring as Martin Truex Jr. led 392 of the race’s laps. Truex, who won the first two races of the Chase, qualified seventh. He’s driving the same car he used to dominate at Charlotte in May and won with at Chicago three weekends ago.
The race is still scheduled for Saturday evening as Hurricane Matthew bears down on Florida and parts of the southeastern coast of the United States. Charlotte is expected to get rain from the storm, but there’s a chance the rain will have moved out of the area in time for the race to be run as planned Saturday evening.
Here’s how the rest of the field will line up on Saturday night.
1. Kevin Harvick (In the Chase)
2. Alex Bowman
3. Chase Elliott (In the Chase)
4. Kyle Busch (In the Chase)
5. Tony Stewart
6. AJ Allmendinger
7. Martin Truex Jr. (In the Chase)
8. Carl Edwards (In the Chase)
9. Denny Hamlin (In the Chase)
10. Joey Logano (In the Chase)
11. Jimmie Johnson (In the Chase)
12. Kasey Kahne
13. Danica Patrick
14. Greg Biffle
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
16. Jamie McMurray
17. Matt Kenseth (In the Chase)
18. Ryan Blaney
19. Austin Dillon (In the Chase)
20. Brad Keselowski (In the Chase)
21. Ryan Newman
22. Michael McDowell
23. Kurt Busch (In the Chase)
24. Matt DiBenedetto
25. Kyle Larson
26. Chris Buescher
27. Trevor Bayne
28. Paul Menard
29. Casey Mears
30. Brian Scott
31. Clint Bowyer
32. Landon Cassill
33. Aric Almirola
34. David Ragan
35. Regan Smith
36. Cole Whitt
37. Michael Annett
38. Jeffrey Earnhardt
39. Reed Sorenson
40. Josh Wise
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
