At 1:00 p.m. ET the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Michigan will get underway with Kevin Harvick leading the pack, after setting the track record for qualifying speed with a lap of 204.557 mph. Watch the race on TNT or live stream it free by clicking this link.
Harvick didn't seem too surprised at his blazing qualifying run, noting the way the track runs it's easy to lose sight of how fast a driver is actually travelling. "This is one of those racetracks where you're running fast, but you really can't put it all in perspective, I guess, until you hit something," Harvick said. "It's so wide, it's so fast and so smooth, but you don't really get that huge sensation of speed."
Since being re-worked in 2012 laps of over 200 miles per hour have become more commonplace, but none faster than Havick's. Like Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, Harvick's shown some mastery of NASCAR's new qualifying format; this is his third pole of the year. "This format has obviously been good for me to kind of, I guess, creep up on it as you go through the sessions," Harvick said. "A fast car really solves a lot of problems."
The high speeds seem like a great advancement for the sport, but Harvick seemed concerned that there are downsides to going so fast, so regularly. "Michigan's been fast for a long time. How fast is too fast?" Harvick said.
"The cars will slow down a tremendous amount when we get them in race trim and you get them in a pack, and it's going to be quite a bit hotter on Sunday. They'll slow down. Qualifying speeds are high. It's just a matter of whose opinion is taken on whether it's too fast or not."
Keselowski, who will start in sixth position today, echoed Harvick. "How do the speeds affect our ability to pass and put on a race that our fans enjoy?" said Keselowski. "If we're able to go 300 miles an hour and race side by side, that doesn't really matter to me. It's just the ability to do that -- to have great side-by-side racing. And at this point, with the way aerodynamics have kind of taken over motorsports, we haven't shown that ability."
| POS | DRIVER | MANUFACTURER | CAR | SPEED |
| 1 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 204.557 mph | |
| 2 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | 203.776 mph | |
| 3 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | 203.729 mph | |
| 4 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 203.200 mph | |
| 5 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | 203.040 mph | |
| 6 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 202.908 mph | |
| 7 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 202.401 mph | |
| 8 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 202.043 mph | |
| 9 | Joey Logano | Ford | 202.032 mph | |
| 10 | Brian Vickers | Toyota | 201.331 mph | |
| 11 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 200.490 mph | |
| 12 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 201.117 mph | |
| 13 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 200.876 mph | |
| 14 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 200.842 mph | |
| 15 | Clint Bowyer | Toyota | 200.831 mph | |
| 16 | Martin Truex Jr. | Chevrolet | 200.820 mph | |
| 17 | Justin Allgaier | Chevrolet | 200.730 mph | |
| 18 | Greg Biffle | Ford | 200.518 mph | |
| 19 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 200.457 mph | |
| 20 | Marcos Ambrose | Ford | 200.128 mph | |
| 21 | Matt Kenseth | Toyota | 199.967 mph | |
| 22 | Carl Edwards | Ford | 199.534 mph | |
| 23 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 199.518 mph | |
| 24 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 199.165 mph | |
| 25 | AJ Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 200.837 mph | |
| 26 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | 200.457 mph | |
| 27 | Danica Patrick | Chevrolet | 200.451 mph | |
| 28 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Ford | 12 | 200.217 mph |
| 29 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 199.933 mph | |
| 30 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 199.750 mph | |
| 31 | Casey Mears | Chevrolet | 199.617 mph | |
| 32 | David Gilliland | Ford | 198.593 mph | |
| 33 | David Ragan | Ford | 198.571 mph | |
| 34 | Brett Moffitt | Toyota | 198.347 mph | |
| 35 | J.J. Yeley | Chevrolet | 44 | 197.900 mph |
| 36 | David Stremme | Chevrolet | 197.666 mph | |
| 37 | Michael Annett | Chevrolet | 197.390 mph | |
| 38 | Josh Wise | Chevrolet | 196.969 mph | |
| 39 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 196.566 mph | |
| 40 | Reed Sorenson | Chevrolet | 196.266 mph | |
| 41 | Alex Bowman | Toyota | 195.434 mph | |
| 42 | Cole Whitt | Toyota | 195.127 mph | |
| 43 | Travis Kvapil | Ford | 194.963 mph |
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