Las Vegas, NV (93.7 The Fan) -- Kevin Harvick is on the pole position for Sunday's Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube.
Harvick's lap of 29.914-seconds (18.517 mph) around the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway beat Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch for the top spot.
The pole is the first pole of the season for Harvick and the 26th of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career.
"It may not be the fastest car that gets the pole today," said Harvick. "It came down to timing and strategy and we worked on some things with our car to try and do the right things and we wound up in a good spot."
NASCAR's new competition package placed more of an emphasis on being in the draft versus being the fastest car based on outright speed. As a result, all of the drivers in the final 5-minute qualifying session waited until the last 90-seconds to hit the track for a frantic final minute and a half.
"That really comes down to the spotter and what he thinks, you know, the time to come around, get out onto the race track, get to the green, make a lap and be able to make another lap," said Harvick about waiting until the last possible moment to make that last qualifying run.
Austin Dillon qualified fourth followed by his Richard Childress Racing teammate Daniel Hemric, the highest qualifying rookie.
David Ragan qualified sixth followed by Chip Ganassi Racing's Kyle Larson in seventh. Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano rounded out the Top 10.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott were actually the fastest cars during the final session, but NASCAR ruled they did not start their faster final laps before time expired. They will start 11th and 12th respectively.
The green flag drops Sunday, March 2, 2019 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
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