Dillon Wins AAA Texas 500 Pole

Qualifying for the AAA Texas 500 is complete. It was a session in which the Richard Childress Racing twosome of Austin Dillon and Paul Menard showed some much-needed speed. As a result, the No. 3 Realtree/Bad Boy Chevrolet, piloted by Dillon, is on the pole and the No. 27 Schrock/Menard’s Chevrolet, driven by his teammate Menard, will roll off the grid Sunday afternoon in the sixth-place position.

Dillon is no longer in the hunt for the championship in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series but that didn’t stop him from spoiling the Chase party. In the first qualifying round, Dillon finished eighth with a lap time of 27.960 seconds, 193.133 MPH. In round two, he improved to third place with a lap and speed of 27.979 seconds, 193.002 MPH. It was a run of 28.081 seconds, 192.301 MPH that earned Dillon his third career pole in Cup competition.

Joey Logano will join Dillon on the front row after he posted a 28.087-second lap, which also had a speed of 192.260 MPH. The driver of the No. 22 AAA Ford led the first round at 27.797 seconds, 194.266 MPH. In the second round, he recorded a time and speed of 27.982 seconds, 192.981 MPH to finish fourth. This is Logano’s 25th top-10 start of the 2016 season.

Kevin Harvick needs to pull off a win in one of the next two races to have a shot at his second Sprint Cup title. The driver of the No. 4 Busch Beer Chevrolet will start third after he laid down a lap of 28.099 seconds, 192.178 MPH. He finished third in round one at 27.855 seconds, 193.861 MPH and led the second round with a time and speed of 27.826 seconds, 194.063 MPH. Harvick is making his seventh top-10 start of the year.

Current Chase standings leader and last week’s race winner at Martinsville, Jimmie Johnson, finished the first round with a lap of 28.071 seconds, 192.369 MPH. Although his second-round effort of 28.493 seconds, 189.520 MPH, was not good enough to get him to round three, the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet will still take the green flag in 19th.

Ryan Blaney was the fastest rookie qualifier. The driver of the No. 21 Borg Warner Ford will start eighth after his third round lap time and speed of 28.232 seconds, 191.272 MPH.

Kyle Busch ended round one in the second-place position. Unfortunately, the driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota discovered a water leak at the beginning of his round-two lap and was not able to complete it. He will roll off the grid in the 24th position.

40 drivers completed qualifying session. No one was eliminated. 

Tune in to your local NBC affiliate, PRN or Sirius XM Channel 90 for coverage of the AAA Texas 500, which begins Sunday at 1:00 PM CT.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Round 1

  1. Joey Logano
  2. Kyle Busch
  3. Kevin Harvick
  4. Chase Elliott
  5. Martin Truex Jr.
  6. Kyle Larson
  7. Denny Hamlin
  8. Austin Dillon
  9. Carl Edwards
  10. Kurt Busch

Round 2

  1. Kevin Harvick
  2. Carl Edwards
  3. Austin Dillon
  4. Joey Logano
  5. Paul Menard
  6. Chase Elliott
  7. Martin Truex Jr.
  8. Kurt Busch
  9. Ryan Blaney
  10. Matt Kenseth

Round 3 & Top 10 Starters

  1. Austin Dillon
  2. Joey Logano
  3. Kevin Harvick
  4. Brad Keselowski
  5. Kyle Larson
  6. Paul Menard
  7. Matt Kenseth
  8. Ryan Blaney
  9. Carl Edwards
  10. Kurt Busch
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