Austin Dillon wins Chicagoland pole
Austin Dillon is going to start first at Chicago.
Dillon posted the fastest lap in qualifying on Saturday, though the lap wasn’t all that fast. His 176.236 mph lap was slower than both the pole speed for the Xfinity Series race earlier in the day and Friday night’s Truck Series race.
It’s the first time in a long time — and quite frankly, maybe ever — that the Cup Series’ fastest qualifier has posted a slower lap on the same track on the same weekend than the pole winners in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series. But this is now the reality that NASCAR is operating in with the higher downforce and lower horsepower on Cup Series cars in 2019.
Kevin Harvick will start second. He’s the only non-Chevy driver in the top five. Daniel Hemric starts third and is followed by Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch. The top eight drivers are all made up of guys who haven’t won a race in 2019. Denny Hamlin in ninth is the first starter of those who have won this season.
Sunday’s race is on NBC Sports Network. It’s the first race on NBC this season and the network will broadcast the rest of the Cup Series schedule.
Starting lineup
1. Austin Dillon
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Daniel Hemric
4. Jimmie Johnson
5. Kurt Busch
6. Clint Bowyer
7. Michael McDowell
8. Alex Bowman
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Ryan Blaney
11. William Byron
12. Brad Keselowki
13. Chase Elliott
14. Kyle Larson
15. Aric Almirola
16. Ryan Newman
17. Kyle Busch
18. Martin Truex Jr.
19. Joey Logano
20. Ty Dillon
21. Erik Jones
22. Matt Tifft
23. Ryan Preece
24. David Ragan
25. Paul Menard
26. Ricky Stenhouse
27. Bubba Wallace
28. Chris Buescher
29. Daniel Suarez
30. Matt DiBenedetto
31. Corey LaJoie
32. Ross Chastain
33. Bayley Currey
34. Landon Cassill
35. BJ McLeod
36. Quin Houff
37. Josh Bilicki
38. Reed Sorenson
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports
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