Something unsurprising: Kevin Harvick wins the pole at Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – In a development that stuns no NASCAR fan, Kevin Harvick will start first for Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway.

Harvick was the fastest car through all three qualifying rounds and it really wasn't close. His speed of 197.621 MPH was over a MPH faster than second-place Brian Vickers.

It's Harvick's eighth pole of the season. One of the previous seven came in May at Kansas, where Harvick led 119 laps. However a slow green flag pit stop on the final round of stops handed Jeff Gordon the lead and eventual win.

It's also his third pole in a row at Kansas. He started first and finished first in last year's Chase race with Richard Childress Racing.

The next-highest Chase driver after Harvick was Joey Logano. He was fourth. Aric Almirola, eliminated in last week's first Chase eliminations, was third.

Ryan Newman needed the help of a tiebreaker to advance to the second round of qualifying. The round was delayed as NASCAR officials determined what the tiebreaker was between Newman and Denny Hamlin, who had the exact same qualifying times down to the thousandth of a second. Since Newman was higher in points after Dover (before the points were reset for this round of the Chase), he got the 24th spot and Hamlin was 25th.

Newman ultimately qualified 13th.

Here's how the 12 remaining Chase drivers qualified. Look where Jimmie Johnson is.

1. Kevin Harvick
4. Joey Logano
5. Jeff Gordon
6. Brad Keselowski
7. Kyle Busch
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
10. Kasey Kahne
12. Carl Edwards
17. Ryan Newman
25. Denny Hamlin
27. Matt Kenseth
32. Jimmie Johnson

It's Johnson's lowest qualification in a Chase race since 2005.

Johnson isn't a stranger to starting deep in the field at Kansas, however. Since winning the pole in the 2008 fall race he has qualified in the top 10 twice. In that span, however, he hasn't finished outside the top 10.

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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!

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