Learn more about Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award finalists

Posted on October 21, 2018January 21, 2022 by Staff Report

From all walks of life, the four finalists for the 2018 Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award all have a similar thread that runs through them – the burning desire to help.

And specifically, the desire to help children — just like Betty Jane France herself.

The four finalists, announced Sunday at Kansas Speedway, give themselves in various ways, from cuddling hospitalized newborns in the NICU; to being stewards for housing services for the families of critically ill children; to managing a horse farm that provides free, transformative camp experiences to children with serious illnesses; to representing area Boys & Girls Clubs.

One of them, via fan vote, will be named the eighth recipient of the prestigious award given by The NASCAR Foundation and one that honors the memory and the philanthropic legacy of the foundation’s late founder, Betty Jane France.

“This year’s stellar group of finalists consists of loyal longtime NASCAR fans who also are outstanding people,” The NASCAR Foundation Chairman Mike Helton said in a press release. “Each of these individuals demonstrates, on a daily basis, true commitment and passion for their causes. Their good works are exactly the sort of volunteerism Betty Jane France wanted to spotlight, when the award was created.”

More on the finalists:

• Carl Dakes of Harwood, Maryland, an 18-year volunteer representing the Believe In Tomorrow Children’s Foundation, Inc. of Catonsville, Maryland. The foundation provides hospital and respite housing services to critically ill children and their families.

• Sarah Kersey of Dublin, Ohio, a cancer survivor who represents Flying Horse Farms in Mt. Gilead, Ohio. The facility, where Kersey has served as a volunteer since 2010, provides transformative camp experiences for children with serious illnesses, at no cost.

• Cliff Preston of Gainesville, Florida, representing UF Health Shands. He has volunteered for more than 25 years as a “cuddler” to soothe hospitalized newborns in the NICU during a parent’s absence.

• Rex Reynolds of Hazel Green, Alabama, representing the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Alabama. Reynolds grew up participating in club programs and has now served in a volunteer role for 13 years.

All four finalists took part in activities during the race weekend at Kansas Speedway. The award honors NASCAR fans who are also accomplished volunteers working for children’s causes in their communities throughout the United States.

The winner will be determined via an online fan vote today through Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. (ET) at NASCARfoundation.org/Award. The winner will be announced on Nov. 29 during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Awards at Wynn Las Vegas. The NASCAR Foundation will donate $25,000 to the charities represented by the award finalists, with the winner’s charity receiving a $100,000 donation.

Since the award’s inception, The NASCAR Foundation has impacted the lives of more than 260,000 children by providing more than $1.2 million in contributions to charities represented by finalists for the award.

Stories on each finalist will be posted on NASCAR.com throughout the coming week.

Posted on October 20, 2018October 21, 2018 by Staff Report

NASCAR officials announced that the Richard Childress Racing No. 21 Chevrolet driven by Daniel Hemric to a runner-up finish in Saturday’s Xfinity Series event at Kansas Speedway was found to be too low in a post-race inspection.

The No. 21 car did not pass the minimum height requirement in the left-front. Officials said any penalties would be announced next week, but such an infraction would fall under the L1-level guidelines with a 10-point penalty in the driver and owner standings and a $10,000 fine.

RELATED: Race results | Nemechek breaks through

Hemric finished 5.200 seconds behind first-time race winner John Hunter Nemechek in the Kansas Lottery 300. He emerged as the series’ leader by nine points over Elliott Sadler after the opening race in the Round of 8.

Additionally, the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Chevrolet team was found to have one lug nut not secured in a post-race check. The guidelines for such a penalty would result in a fine for the crew chief Randall Burnett. Matt Tifft drove the No. 2 car to a sixth-place finish Saturday.

Posted on October 20, 2018October 21, 2018 by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – John Hunter Nemechek grabbed his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in a race that threw the championship battle into chaos.

Pulling away with three laps after the final restart on Lap 169 of 200, Nemechek took the checkered flag 5.200 seconds ahead of Daniel Hemric to win the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, the venue where his father, Joe Nemechek, won his final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race in 2004.

Though Nemechek fell far behind Hemric after sliding through his pit box during a green-flag stop on Lap 150, he caught a break when Vinnie Miller stalled near the exit from pit road to cause the seventh and final caution on Lap 164.

RELATED: Race results | Full schedule for Kansas

Nemechek powered his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet from sixth place on the restart and passed Hemric for good after a side-by-side battle on Lap 171.

“When that caution came, I knew we had a chance,” Nemechek said. “Luckily, Daniel and I raced each other hard and clean all day. We got the track position, and this thing was on rails today. I feel like we’ve been contending for wins all year. We just haven’t pulled through.

“To check the first one off—that’s the hardest one to get. Hopefully, we can go on. We’re racing for the owners’ championship at Homestead.”

Nearly 200 laps before Nemechek crossed the finish line, however, a shocking, monumental crash jolted the hopes of four title contenders and turned the Playoff standings upside-down.

Third-place starter Justin Allgaier, second in points, got loose in the second corner on Lap 1 and clipped the No. 20 Toyota of series leader Christopher Bell, turning Bell’s car into the outside wall. Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet bounced off Bell’s Camry like a pinball and collected the No. 22 Ford of Playoff driver Austin Cindric.

Allgaier and Cindric were unable to continue. Bell’s team tried in vain to repair his Toyota, but Bell retired after completing two laps. Also damaged in the first-lap incident was the No. 00 Ford of Cole Custer, which fell 10 laps down while his team tried to fix the power steering.

Custer earned a hard-fought 26th-place finish but fell to seventh in the Playoff standings.

“I was the cause of the incident, unfortunately,” a rueful Allgaier said after exiting the infield care center. “That one’s on me. I’m super disappointed for everybody involved.

“Not only did we wreck our day but a lot of the other competitors. Hate it for those guys. Hopefully we can get to Texas next week and rebound from it.”

The wreck wiped out the Playoff point advantage Bell and Allgaier held at the start of the Round of 8. Bell, Allgaier and Cindric finished 37th, 38th and 39th, respectively.

“I didn’t really see much of anything,” Bell said of the accident. “Just kind of driving around there. Just heartbroken. This is one of my favorite race tracks we go to, and especially after the run I had last year (his first Xfinity win), this is the race that I was looking forward to whenever we started the year back in February.”

Bell nevertheless was well aware of the benefit his six series wins have given him, having entered the round with 44 playoff points, five more than Allgaier.

“That’s the beauty of this format,” Bell said. “NASCAR’s done such a great job at giving us something to race for during the regular season. We’ve done our job winning six races this year, so we’ve accumulated some bonus points, so hopefully that can carry us through this bad stretch here and maybe we can find ourselves in Victory Lane later on in this round.

“If not, hopefully the bonus points will get us there.”

Cindric, who came to Kansas in eighth place and leaves in the same position, didn’t have the luxury of a points cushion.

MORE: Multicar crash erupts on Lap 1

“I’m thankful to still be in the Playoffs and still have a shot,” said Cindric. “I felt like we had a shot to win today. We’ll move on, have a week to think about it, go to Texas. Looks like we’re going to have to win (to advance).”

Hemric, who led 128 laps, leaves Kansas as the series leader, 23 points above the cut line. Allgaier dropped below the Playoff cut line behind Matt Tifft in fifth. Bell stayed one point to the good Tifft, who finished sixth on Saturday as one of eight drivers on the lead lap.

Elliott Sadler ran third to hold second in the standings, very much alive in his quest to win a first championship in his last season of full-time competition. Tyler Reddick, Sadler’s JR Motorsports teammate, came home fourth and is third in the series standings.

Shane Lee finished a career-best fourth in his 10th start of the season.

Posted on October 20, 2018October 21, 2018 by RJ Kraft

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Joey Logano will lead the field to green for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). After three practice sessions and qualifying determining the starting order, we’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration as you make roster decisions.

PLAY NOW: Set your lineup | How the playoff game works

Remember that the garage locks at the end of Stage 2. Also, your garage play can only be swapped for a driver of similar classification. (A playoff garage driver can only be swapped for a playoff driver in your lineup; a non-playoff garage driver can only be swapped for a non-playoff driver in your lineup.)

RJ Kraft’s Fantasy Live lineup for race-day at Kansas:
Playoff driver 1: Kevin Harvick
Playoff driver 2: Kyle Busch
Non-playoff driver 1: Erik Jones
Non-playoff driver 2: Denny Hamlin
Garage: Ryan Blaney

MORE: Fantasy analysis for Kansas | Driver stats | 10-lap averages | Lineup

Analysis: The Fantasy Live Playoff Game is in Week 6! Four-fifths of my lineup remains the same. Harvick and Busch have won six of the eight races on 1.5-mile tracks this year. Busch topped the 10-lap board in both practice sessions and Harvick has been in the top-four in that category. Jones was second in final practice on the speed chart and fifth on the 10-lap board — highest among the non-playoff competitors. He has also been a solid play all year on 1.5-mile tracks. Hamlin has solid 10-lap times and has two straight top-five finishes at Kansas and on the season. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is a pretty popular play for a non-playoff driver so if you looking for a lesser owned option look at someone like Paul Menard.

For the garage play, I debated Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. pretty heavily. All would be good choices. Truex has won two of the last three races here. Logano will sit on the pole and has won the fall race at Kansas two times. Ultimately, I am sticking Blaney in the garage and moving away from my original play of Truex. He has three top-five finishes in his last five Kansas starts. He was strong in the spring race as he won a stage and earned 18 stage points before a wreck with Kyle Larson ended his night late in the race. He qualified fourth and again should be aggressive on stage points given his points position — 22 points out from the final spot. There is risk with playing a driver that is a tough playoff position, but I feel like I have ample protection with two of the best on 1.5-mile tracks in my main lineup.

With stage winners, I am taking Harvick to win Stage 1 and Stage 2 with Busch as the race winner. One wrinkle: I will be taking Ford as the manufacturer pick given the abundance of strong blue oval cars from Stewart-Haas Racing and Team Penske this weekend.

Posted on October 20, 2018October 20, 2018 by RJ Kraft

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Christopher Bell and Justin Allgaier entered the NASCAR Xfinity Series Round of 8 atop the standings, but a major multi-car wreck on the opening lap of Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway changed the playoff picture in an instant.

Allgaier’s JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet broke loose in Turn 2 shortly after the green flag, making contact with Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The melee collected several other cars, including fellow postseason contenders Austin Cindric and Cole Custer. Allgaier, Bell and Cindric were among those taking their cars to the garage, ending the day for all three championship hopefuls. Michael Annett, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, Spencer Gallagher and Ryan Truex were also caught up in the incident.

Allgaier and Bell chatted briefly after media interviews outside the care center as they downloaded about the incident. Bell finished 37th, while Allgaier finished 38th and Cindric came home in 39th. Custer suffered from a power steering issue as a result of the wreck and finished 18 laps down in 26th.

Those results left Bell with a +1 cushion on Matt Tifft, while Allgaier (-5), Custer (-23) and Cindric (-43) are on the outside looking in with two races left in the round.

RELATED: Full race results | Series standings

The Lap 1 incident caught Allgaier completely by surprise as the JR Motorsports driver had little issue with his car all weekend.

“Got super loose on the bottom,” Allgaier said of what triggered the wreck. “We hadn’t been loose all weekend so that was kind of a weird sensation for me. Not the way we wanted to start the race today in Kansas especially in the second round of the playoffs.”

A wreck at Richmond to open the Round of 12 put Allgaier in a precarious playoff position. The regular-season champion was far from secure entering the cutoff race at Dover two weeks ago but a third-place finish helped him reach the Round of 8.

“These playoffs are so crazy as it is,” Allgaier said. “It’s not a good spot to be in I can promise you that. Right, wrong or indifferent, today sucks. There’s nothing intentional by today at all. We don’t want to put ourselves in any bigger hole than we have to and that’s probably the most frustrating part. Not only did we hurt my day, but we hurt our competitors as well and that’s frustrating on my end.”

LISTEN: Hear from Allgaier after big wreck

Cindric came into the round eighth in the standings and this incident puts him in a deep hole. However, his playoff ride – the No. 22 Team Penske Ford – has a winning history at Texas and Phoenix, the remaining races in the Round of 8.

“I have to win one of the next two races but we have a pretty good notebook since the 22 car won both Texas and Phoenix in the spring,” Cindric said. “I have a lot of confidence going into those races.”

Bell started second in the race and was the defending race winner as well. He had commented on Friday about how much he enjoyed racing at 1.5-mile tracks – of which there are two in this round – Kansas and Texas.

“I didn’t really get to see anything, I just felt a lot,” Bell said. “I don’t know. Normally whenever you’re up front, you’re in the safest spot you can be, but just didn’t get a very good launch and the side by side with the 7 (Allgaier) car and it just didn’t work out.”

Still, the 23-year-old started the round atop the standings thanks to 44 playoff points and he did not lose sight that those soften the blow from Saturday’s result.

The 300-mile race was the opening event in the Round of 8, the final three-race stanza in the Xfinity Series Playoffs that also includes races at Texas Motor Speedway (Nov. 3) and ISM Raceway (Nov. 10).

Contributing: Staff reports

MORE: Photos from the track

Posted on October 20, 2018October 21, 2018 by RJ Kraft

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The playoff pressure has been ratcheted up heading into Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The elimination race will see the field of title contenders whittled down from 12 to eight at the end of the 267-lap race at the 1.5-mile track.

Entering the race, Kurt Busch (+30), Clint Bowyer (+21) and Martin Truex Jr. (+18) are the last three drivers that would provisionally transfer into the next round. Giving chase of that group is Brad Keselowski (-18), Ryan Blaney (-22), Kyle Larson (-36) and Alex Bowman (-68).

Consider this stat: In every Round of 12 cutoff race in the playoff elimination era there has been a flip flop of some sort between who was in entering the race and who was out by the end of the race. Is there anyone inside the provisional cutline that should be very concerned going into the race? NASCAR.com’s RJ Kraft and Pat DeCola analyze that very thought.

KRAFT: Maybe I’m taking the easy target since he’s the last driver above the cutline but for me, Martin Truex Jr. should be the most concerned. The two-time Kansas winner just seems a little off this weekend and he can’t afford to be especially when the Team Penske Fords of Blaney and Keselowski — two drivers below the cutline — looked to be pretty dialed in. A winner outside of the top 8 makes Truex’s position even more precarious and it essentially could become a battle between he and his former Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Clint Bowyer for the final spot.

Besides how Truex has looked this weekend, there are two bigger concerns for me. One, this is not 2017. Truex scored seven wins on 1.5-mile tracks in his championship season, but this year he has just one. By and large, he has run well at those tracks in 2018, but hasn’t been in position to seal the deal as opposed to last year when those tracks were the cornerstone of his title campaign.

The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota just seems snake bit this postseason as well. He had a strong car that led the most laps at Las Vegas and finished third. He led the most laps at Richmond but a pit road penalty set him back before rallying for a third-place finish. At Charlotte, he led coming to the final chicane before contact with Jimmie Johnson spun him around and led to a 14th-place finish. All those factors have me extremely concerned for Truex being able to advance and further defend his title.

DECOLA: I agree that Truex’s No. 78 team has just seemed a bit … off, by their standards … but forgive me if I’d rather trust the driver that swept the races at this track last year on his way to the Monster Energy Series title and was runner-up here in the spring to figure things out by checkered flag on Sunday over someone else.

And that someone? The Kansas native, Clint Bowyer.

As great as it’d be to see the Stewart-Haas Racing driver finally, finally break through for a win at his home track and keep his quest for what would certainly be one of the greatest championship celebrations the sport has ever seen, I see it coming to an abrupt halt Sunday evening.

Bowyer has enjoyed a beautiful comeback season this year, putting to rest all of the futility that plagued him since 2013, but I’m not sure he and his team has what it takes to win a title at this moment. He was runner-up at Talladega last weekend and finished third at Charlotte — and has still compiled a pedestrian average finish of 14.6 in the playoffs thus far. That likely won’t cut it with some talented drivers capable of winning outright below the cutline.

Compound that with Bowyer’s inability to put together top 10s at Kansas (just one since finishing fifth in Spring 2013) and there just seem to be more factors pointing to him missing the Round of 8 than making it. The veteran is in one of the faster cars this weekend so anything is possible, of course, but fate just seems to be more on the side of Truex than his former teammate.

Posted on October 20, 2018October 20, 2018 by Staff Report

Kurt Busch took his turn atop the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series leaderboard to lead final practice Saturday afternoon at Kansas Speedway.

Busch guided the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Ford to a fast lap of 186.226 mph on the 1.5-mile track. His time was just .019 seconds ahead of second-fastest Erik Jones, who ran 186.104 mph in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota.

Aric Almirola, last weekend’s winner at Talladega, was third-fastest at 185.842 mph. Kyle Busch and Paul Menard closed out the top five in the final prep session ahead of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM).

The 12 remaining championship-eligible drivers all posted laps within the top 20, and playoff drivers occupied 10 of the top 13 spots on the leaderboard. The playoff field will be whittled from 12 drivers to eight after Sunday’s event, the final race in the Round of 12.

Joey Logano, who will start first after claiming the Busch Pole Award in Friday’s qualifying, notched the 12th-fastest lap in the 50-minute session.

The Nos. 9 (Chase Elliott) and 32 (Matt DiBenedetto) were held for 15 minutes during final practice for failing pre-qualifying inspection twice.

Almirola tops Saturday’s early practice

Aric Almirola, last weekend’s winner, kept up the show of speed Saturday morning at Kansas Speedway by topping the weekend’s second practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Almirola powered the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford to a best lap of 186.683 mph in the 55-minute session. Almirola scored his second career victory in NASCAR’s top division last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

RELATED: Practice 2 results

Erik Jones registered the second-fastest lap with a 186.599 mph clocking in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota. Defending series champion Martin Truex Jr., Kansas native Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch completed the top five as tune-ups continued ahead of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM).

A caution came out 19 minutes into the session after smoke started billowing from the back of the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Jamie McMurray immediately took the vehicle to the garage, and five minutes was added to the practice to offset the clean-up time.

McMurray’s teammate, Kyle Larson, wrecked during Friday’s practice and had to go to a backup car. Larson was sixth-fastest in Saturday’s early practice.

Joey Logano, who claimed the Busch Pole Award in Friday qualifying, posted the 10th-fastest lap in the Team Penske No. 22 Ford.

Meanwhile, the Nos. 00 (Landon Cassill), 23 (JJ Yeley), 66 (Timmy Hill) and 99 (Kyle Weatherman) were all held for 15 minutes in Saturday’s opening practice for being late to qualifying inspection.

Posted on October 20, 2018October 20, 2018 by Staff Report

See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on October 19, 2018October 19, 2018 by Staff Report

Chip Ganassi Racing’s appeal of an L1-level penalty assessed this week to its No. 42 team was denied Friday by the independent three-member National Motorsports Appeals Panel, and then again late Friday evening at approximately 11 p.m. ET by the Final Appeals Officer.

Friday night’s final appeal was Ganassi’s last recourse in contesting the original penalty.

The National Motorsports Appeals Panel initially upheld the penalty after an expedited hearing earlier Friday at Kansas Speedway, site of Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. Chip Ganassi Racing then exercised its option to file a final appeal, a hearing that was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET.

RELATED: No. 42 assessed L1 penalty

The decision from National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer Bryan Moss was announced nearly three hours later.

Moss’ ruling means the original penalties stand. The organization was docked 10 points in both the driver and team owner standings, plus crew chief Chad Johnston was fined $25,000 and car chief David Bryant was suspended for one race.

In the final appeal process, the burden of proof rested with Chip Ganassi Racing. In the initial appeals hearing, the burden of proof rested with NASCAR.

The Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 team was found to have violated the Damaged Vehicle Policy and mechanical repair guidelines (Section 10.9.9.d of the NASCAR Rule Book) during last Sunday’s event at Talladega Superspeedway. NASCAR competition officials ruled that the team repaired Kyle Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet by using metal tabs to reattach body panels after a crash. The rules state that only approved fasteners and/or tape only may be used.

The deduction of points leaves Larson in a tight spot facing elimination for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM), the final event of the Round of 12. Larson sits 36 points below the cut line for advancement to the next round of the NASCAR Playoffs.

“Obviously, a 10-point penalty doesn’t help, but I felt like with even being 26 points back, we were going to probably have to go into this week and get a win to make it to the next round,” Larson said ahead of opening practice at Kansas Speedway. “It doesn’t really mean much to me, the 10 points, like I said just because I view this weekend or viewed it before that we had to come in here and win.”

The three-member National Motorsports Appeals Panel that heard the initial appeal was:

Chuck Deery, general manager of LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway
Dixon Johnston, former P&G brand manager and an executive at Trone and SkyBox International
Cathy Rice, general manager of South Boston Speedway

Posted on October 19, 2018October 19, 2018 by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Shades of Talladega. Only this time Team Penske—driver Joey Logano in particular—joined the Ford domination party.

Saving the fastest lap of the day for the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session, Logano navigated 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway in 28.177 seconds (191.646 mph) to claim the pole position for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Logano enters the elimination race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 12 with a 39-point cushion over teammate Brad Keselowski, the first driver below the cutline. But that doesn’t dictate a conservative approach for the No. 22 team come Sunday.

RELATED: Qualifying results

“I’m not much of a play-it-safe guy,” said Logano, who earned his first Busch Pole Award of the season, his second at Kansas and the 20th of his career. “I’m not good at it, for one… This race, I wouldn’t say it’s a wild card. We’ve raced here a lot, and we tend to know how the race is going to play out.

“The plan is to race, like we tend to do. We’ve got a good car, obviously. The car’s got a lot of steam. So it’s a normal race for us. Yes, it’s a cutoff race. Yes, there are points involved. Yes, we’ve got to keep up with that, but it’s just a race. Any time you line up for one of these things, the goal is the same. The goal is to win.”

Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick (191.178 mph) qualified second and, in fact, was second fastest in each of the three rounds. Last Friday, the four SHR drivers claimed the top-four starting spots at Talladega and ran 1-2-3-4 for most of Sunday’s race.

On Friday, Harvick and Talladega winner Aric Almirola qualified second and third, respectively, but the Team Penske Fords of Ryan Blaney and Keselowski, both of whom face an uphill climb to make the Round of 8, were fourth and fifth.

“Days like today are days that really show us all the hard work that comes from the engine shop, and you saw a lot of the same displayed last week at Talladega from the engines to the oils and the preparation of getting the cars up in the front of the field,” said Harvick, who is locked into the Round of 8 on points. “It’s a good start to the weekend. It gets you good pits stalls and allows you to get everything at the start of the race going and allows you to have a little buffer if your car is not handling right.

“Qualifying days and superspeedway races are a huge credit to the engine shop and the things they do. Our guys do a great job with the cars, qualifying or race trim. It makes it a lot of fun.”

Behind the five Fords were the four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas, with Erik Jones qualifying sixth, Kyle Busch seventh, Daniel Suarez eighth and Denny Hamlin ninth. Tenth-place Alex Bowman, who must win on Sunday to advance to the Round of 8, was the only Chevrolet driver in the top 12.

“We were the best in class, I guess,” Bowman said. “We wanted to be quite a bit better than that. I got pretty loose in (Turns) 1 and 2 and had to lift. So we should have been a couple of spots better probably, if we wouldn’t have had that happen.

“But (crew chief) Greg (Ives) made good adjustments. The car got better every run, and we’ll move on from there. We’ve got some work to do run with that other manufacturer towards the front of the field, but I’m confident we can get better and get there.”

Kyle Larson, 11th in the standings and likely in a must-win situation, suffered a setback even before qualifying began. He hit the outside wall on his second lap in opening practice and was forced to a backup car.

Larson, who is 36-points out of eighth place, was 27th in time trials but must drop to the rear of the field for the start of the race because of the change to the backup.

Martin Truex Jr., who currently occupies the final spot inside the Playoffs cut line, qualified 12th in his No. 78 Toyota, one spot behind SHR driver Kurt Busch.