NASCAR: Harvick on pole as contenders pair up

Kevin Harvick won the pole for Sunday's season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, while Friday's qualifying session was much more nerve-wracking for Jimmie Johnson, the No. 48 team and the rest of the Championship 4 wanted.

Harvick earned his first-ever pole at Homestead with a fastest lap of 177.637mph. He's joined on the front row by Brad Keselowski, who turned a lap of 177.538mph in the No 2 Penske Ford. Ryan Newman (177.387mph) and Denny Hamlin (177.194mph) will start on Row 2. Harvick's Stewart-Haas teammate Tony Stewart will start 11th in his final Sprint Cup race.

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"We've done everything the same," Harvick said. "Obviously there's not as much pressure coming into the weekend as there normally would be, and a lot less to do, so that's a good thing. So yeah, it would be nice to win a race and close the season out. Just a lot of reasons, Tony's last race, last race with Chevrolet.

"Came here to try to win, same as everybody else. No participation trophies."

Johnson, who worked on qualifying for most of Friday's practice, went out early in the first of three rounds before the sun went down, setting a mark of 174.588mph that was quickly eclipsed by fellow Championship 4 contenders Carl Edwards and Joey Logano and enough cars to drop him out of the top 24. Edwards and Logano maintained spots in the top 10, while Kyle Busch landed in the middle of the pack with a fast lap of 175.518mph.

Johnson – who never failed to advance past the first round all year – took to the track again with just over a minute to go, but a spin by Landon Cassill with 57 seconds left froze the clock. When NASCAR restarted the clock, Johnson and four others – Johnson, Paul Menard, Ty Dillon, Brian Scott and Michael McDowell – scrambled to the line to get one more shot at a lap.

Johnson distanced himself to get some clean air and pulled out a 175.234mph lap – good enough for 22nd and a spot in Round 2. Brian Scott also advanced from that group.

Kyle Busch was first to go out among the title four in Round 2, followed by Logano. Edwards, third out along the contenders, pushed Logano down to 11th after a lap at 177.474mph. AJ Allmendinger dropped Logano to 12th.

Johnson was forced to watch as his tires cooled, while Tony Stewart moved Logano below the cut line. Johnson and Logano took the green flag with just over a minute to go but it was too much to overcome. The duo will start from Row 7.

"What's a championship race without a little drama?" Johnson said with a smile.

"[The car's not] not ideal by any stretch. I think guys were saying top-five you have a pretty good situation, so we're not ideal there. From 14th to fifth it seems to be easy to pass week in and week out, but those final top four or five cars are always so tough to pass.

"You know, it's no different this week than others, but it would have made life – at least the first half of the race easier if we got to start up front, but we don't have that luxury.

Logano was pleased with the car in the first round but not as much as the night wore on.

"Car had good speed," he said. "The second round we just lost speed, fell off a little bit too hard, fell off harder than most of the field. Came in, cooled down, tried to get a little bit more, make some adjustments and make our balance a little bit better, and just didn't – it's hard to go back out there after you've got your tires hot and try to go even faster. We matched our time basically.

"We'll be okay. Like Jimmie said, this is a place you can pass. You've got a wide racetrack. Faster cars are able to get around other cars. I feel comfortable about what our car is going to be. We'll work on it some more tomorrow in the two practices, make sure it's good in race trim and over the long haul and be able to move around the race track like typical Homestead practice and see what it's got."

By the final round, Busch and Edwards didn't have enough in the tank. Edwards ran into trouble in Turn 2, almost touching the wall with a minute to go. Busch's 175.959mph lap has him starting ninth, with Edwards starting alongside him on Row 5.

Stay tuned for updates.