Harvick claims Kansas pole

Kevin Harvick boosted his NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase prospects by qualifying on pole for this weekend's race at Kansas Speedway.

Richard Childress Chevrolet driver Harvick moved to the top of the leaderboard two-thirds of the way through the session, with a time of 28.796s. There was little movement at the sharp end after that, although Joey Logano and Paul Menard did haul themselves inside the top 10 in fifth and eighth respectively.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. led for Hendrick after the first batch of drivers set a time but a strong run from Roush Fenway's Ricky Stenhouse Jr broke the 29s barrier for the first time in the session. He looked set for pole until Harvick's late effort, those two ending the session as the only drivers to go sub-29s.

Chase leader Matt Kenseth will start the race seventh, while Jimmie Johnson second to Kenseth at the moment will be buoyed after qualifying second. Kyle Busch, third in the points, could only manage 18th.