Daniel Suarez wins pole after Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch fail tech
LONG POND, Pa. -- Daniel Suarez won his first career NASCAR Cup Series pole Saturday but had to wait about 30 minutes to find out that he won it.
The native of Mexico was the third fastest in qualifying at Pocono Raceway but was awarded the pole after the cars of the top two drivers, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, failed post-qualifying technical inspection.
Denny Hamlin, who originally qualified seventh, will start beside Suarez as five of the top seven cars were among those that failed inspection.
Daniel Suarez drives through Turn 3 during qualifying at Pocono Raceway Saturday. AP Photo/Derik Hamilton
"It feels good because we haven't been running well lately," said Suarez, 20th in the Cup series standings. "We have made the top 12 in qualifying the last month, but we haven't raced well.
"It definitely feels good. I feel like this is just the beginning of the weekend. We have to keep it up. The real business is tomorrow. We have to keep this rolling and have a strong run and stay in the front."
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Breaking down the Pocono starting lineup
Daniel Suarez won the pole at Pocono after Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch failed post-qualifying inspection. Take a look through the field for Sunday's Cup race.
As part of a two-day schedule NASCAR is experimenting with at select races this year, this was the second event in which NASCAR did not put the cars through tech prior to qualifying.
Instead, with it being an impound race -- teams can't alter the cars following the race -- NASCAR is doing one combined qualifying and prerace tech after qualifying.
Harvick (who failed the body scanning station) and Busch (who failed the chassis station) had their times disallowed and will start Sunday's race at the rear, where all those who failed post-qualifying inspection will line up by owner points.
Kyle Larson, who was set to start fourth, also failed tech, as did the fifth-place car of Joey Logano. Thirteen of the 40 cars failed inspection. Others who failed: William Byron (who qualified sixth), Austin Dillon (12th), Jimmie Johnson (15th), Paul Menard (17th), Ryan Blaney (18th), Aric Almirola (19th), Clint Bowyer (21st), Bubba Wallace (22nd) and Kasey Kahne (24th).
Four drivers -- Harvick, Logano, Menard and Kahne -- had their car chiefs ejected for failing twice. Harvick and Kahne also will receive a 10-point penalty for failing three times before passing on a fourth.
Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said he was frustrated with the teams and that NASCAR did not need to increase its post-qualifying tolerances. He said most of the failures were with the body scan, with others being the mechanical measurements.
"We're disappointed in this, but we're certainly confident in our process," Miller said. "The teams didn't do a real good job here today. If 27 of them can do it right, the other 13 can do them right. ... The first time around, we had three failures at Chicago [earlier this month], which we were delighted with.
"That was great. As it goes with the race teams, there were three failures and they feel like they weren't pushing it enough, so here we are. This is how it goes -- three failures at Chicago equated to [the teams thinking] we need to get more aggressive, and more aggressive didn't cut it today for them."
Suarez said he was studying video of his qualifying run when he found out the others had failed tech.
"I was watching some data and watching some stuff of the 18 [of Busch] and the 4 [of Harvick], how they got a little faster than me," Suarez said. "I was trying to figure out for next time, doing my notes.
"And then [my PR person] called and said I had to go to the media center."
All those cars that fail post qualifying tech must eventually pass tech Saturday night. A second failure would result in a crew member, chosen by NASCAR, ejected for the weekend. A third failure would be a 10-point penalty.
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Originally Posted by Night Owl
