Kevin Harvick has a fast car, and not just because he won the pole at Michigan with the fastest qualifying speed since 1987.
Harvick, who turned a record lap of 204.557 mph in the final round of qualifying Friday at Michigan International Speedway, is using the same chassis that he drove to the win at Phoenix and a second-place finish at Kansas earlier this year.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver, who already has two wins this season, has one career win at Michigan but hadn’t been particularly strong at the track until last year, when he posted second-place finishes in both events.
Here’s how the lineup breaks down for Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400:
1. Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet — He’ll be the driver to beat Sunday, whether by another team or by his own team, which has stumbled on its own several times this year when he has had awesome speed.
2. Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet — Back atop the Sprint Cup standings and he’s starting on the front row. Even better news: Hasn’t had to talk about his back in a couple of weeks.
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet — He’s been a happy camper with the win last Sunday at Pocono. He’s got Superman on the hood. No word on whether he’s going to find a phone booth to change into his firesuit.
4. Aric Almirola, Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford — Has had four Cup starts at Michigan with finishes of 17th, 17th, 18th and 20th. Starting fourth, a repeat of those finishes would be disappointing.
5. Paul Menard, Richard Childress Racing No. 27 Chevrolet — Only four drivers have more top-10s than Menard this year, but he needs to have “better” bad days. His starting spot shows potential that Sunday won’t be a bad day at all.
6. Brad Keselowski, Team Penske No. 2 Ford — Wouldn’t be surprised if he wins this week after gambling with a move last week that didn’t work and left him with the “first loser” feeling.
7. Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet — The good thing is that with two wins, if he doesn’t get the fuel mileage right at Michigan (kind of a problem for him in the past), no big deal.
8. Kurt Busch, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet — A third last-week ended a seven-week skid. Looking for first back-to-back top-fives since California-Martinsville.
9. Joey Logano, Team Penske No. 22 Ford — Won the race at Michigan last August. Could he be the series’ first three-time winner in 2014?
10. Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip Racing No. 55 Toyota — Won at Michigan in August 2009 and has only raced at the track in a Cup event twice since then.
11. Jamie McMurray, Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 Chevrolet — Hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish at Michigan in his last 10 starts. But maybe he could break that string Sunday.
12. Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet — Announced Friday that his girlfriend is pregnant. No matter how many races he wins this year, that news might have been his biggest surprise ofthe year.
13. Kasey Kahne, Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet — Sponsor Farmers has re-upped with this car for 12 races each year from 2015-2017. Now it’s time for Kahne and this team to improve the results.
14. Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota — Stay away from Kasey Kahne. Far, far, far away. Oh wait, you’re starting next to him.
15. Clint Bowyer, Michael Waltrip Racing No. 15 Toyota — Inconsistent season has Bowyer 16th in the standings. Also has it hard to predict his success on any given weekend.
16. Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Chevrolet — Has to be feeling good after back-to-back top-10s for the first time this year with a sixth at Dover and ninth at Pocono.
17. Justin Allgaier, HScott Motorsports No. 51 Chevrolet — Has a strange sponsor this week — Carcoon Storage Systems, a maker of portable paint booths and mobile repair booths.
18. Greg Biffle, Roush Fenway Racing No. 16 Ford — The good news is that it appears he has put the most difficult of negotiations behind him and is expected to stay at Roush Fenway. Now comes the hard part: Figuring out how to get the Roush cars fast, even at a place where he won a year ago.
19. Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet — Has three Cup starts at Michigan. Was 11th and 14th at the track last year.
20. Marcos Ambrose, Richard Petty Motorsports No. 9 Ford — Has typically shown speed in qualifying but results hard to come by on intermediate tracks. Now speed might be a concern but he knows his teammate Almirola has found a fast setup.
21. Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota — Struggling for speed the last couple of weeks. Was 25th last week at Pocono.
22. Carl Edwards, Roush Fenway Racing No. 99 Ford — Edwards got caught up in the Kahne-Kyle Busch mess last week for his worst finish (41st) since March 2008 when he was 42nd at Atlanta.
23. Trevor Bayne, Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford — Decent starting spot for Bayne for first start in three weeks for this team on its limited schedule.
24. Ryan Newman, Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet — Good thing for him Dale Jarrett had a plane he could jump on to get to Michigan after Dale Earnhardt Jr. accidentally left him stranded earlier Friday morning.
25. AJ Allmendinger, JTG Daugherty Racing No. 47 Chevrolet — He was 19th for this team a year ago at Michigan.
26. Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Chevrolet — A pit-road speeding mistake last week was the only thing that stood between him and a second consecutive top-10.
27. Danica Patrick, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Chevrolet — Her 13th-place finish at Michigan in June a year ago was a sign of her stock-car potential.
28. Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske No. 12 Ford — Montoya making the first of two Cup starts in 2014 (the other being at the Brickyard) for the organization where he also drives in IndyCar. He’s doing this race to be better prepared for Indianapolis next month.
29. Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota — Has two career Cup wins at Michigan but finishes of 30th and 20th last year and JGR struggles on intermediate tracks is not a good sign for Sunday.
30. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Roush Fenway Racing No. 17 Ford — A 15th last week was his first top-20 in four weeks and just his fifth top-20 all year. Hey, small steps when trying to gain momentum.
31. Casey Mears, Germain Racing No. 13 Chevrolet — He’s 25th in the Cup standings, the lowest he’s been all year.
32. David Gilliland, Front Row Motorsports No. 38 Ford — It’s no surprise to see the two Front Row cars qualify within close proximity to each other.
33. David Ragan, Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford — Ragan celebrated the birth of his first child Wednesday. Will be the highlight of his week, month and year.
34. Brett Moffitt, Michael Waltrip Racing No. 66 Toyota — Signed a development deal this week with MWR. He possibly will get four or five more Cup races and possibly some truck and NNS starts, too.
35. JJ Yeley, Xxxtreme Motorsport No. 44 Chevrolet — For a team that has had horsepower concerns, making the field at Michigan is a sigh of relief.
36. David Stremme, Circle Sport Racing No. 33 Chevrolet — A late fast lap in first session of qualifying vaulted Stremme into the field.
37. Michael Annett, Tommy Baldwin Racing No. 7 Chevrolet — His 20th last week at Pocono was his best non-restrictor-plate finish since a 19th at California.
38. Josh Wise, Phil Parsons Racing No. 98 Chevrolet — TNT had an interesting piece on Wise in last week’s prerace show, showing some of his training with swimming in lakes and riding on a mountain bike.
39. Landon Cassill, Mike Hillman Racing Nol 40 Chevrolet — Will need some cautions to stay on the lead lap Sunday.
40. Reed Sorenson, Tommy Baldwin Racing No. 36 Chevrolet — Not surprising that high-speed tracks a struggle for this team.
41. Alex Bowman, BK Racing No. 23 Toyota — Team looking for speed; his teammate Ryan Truex didn’t make the field.
42. Cole Whitt, BK Racing No. 26 Toyota — Five consecutive top-30 finishes for Whitt.
43. Travis Kvapil, Go FAS Racing No. 32 Ford — Could be a long day if he is as underpowered as he has shown in practice and qualifying.
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