Kurt Busch edges teammate Harvick for first Texas pole

FORT WORTH, Texas — Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick admittedly are pushing each other around in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, a mindset that produced a 1-2 qualifying sweep Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Busch knocked Harvick off the top spot with under a minute remaining in round three of time trials to claim his second pole of the season and first at Texas for today’s Duck Commander 500.

Busch toured the high-banked, 1.5-mile quad-oval at 193.847 mph to post his third top-10 start in four races and the 18th pole of his career. The Las Vegas native also qualified fastest at the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., with Harvick alongside in Row 1.

Harvick’s best lap at 193.722 mph was a miniscule 0.018 of a second behind his teammate.

“It feels good to post a lap at Texas and take home a pole award,” Busch said. “Texas is fast. The way the new (knockout) qualifying format works, you have to do it three times. (Crew chief) Tony Gibson is amazing with his adjustments ... and when you have everybody adding in and not second-guessing, you can get everything out of a racecar. It’s a good feeling to have a fast car at Texas.”

Harvick, the reigning Sprint Cup Series champion, settled for his career-best Texas starting position.

“I feel really good about where the car is,” Harvick said. “We spent all but one run in race trim (in two practices). I slipped in (turns) 1 and 2 and got loose and got gun-shy in (turns) 3 and 4. But I feel like we all get better every week and that’s what we need to do.”

Harvick, in fact, said Busch has been a major factor in the team’s progress since returning from a NASCAR-mandated three-race suspension over alleged domestic abuse at the start of the season.

“It’s good to have his feedback because Kurt is really good with the cars, really understands what he wants to do and what’s going on,” said Harvick, a two-time winner this season. “He understands the setup sheets and looks at the tires and pays attention to everything that’s going on.

“When you have that type of feedback, it just helps everybody push things along. And when you have common problems you can solve those problems ... nitpick those problems and fix those problems faster. This is my third year working with Kurt and I’ve enjoyed how much he is in tune with the cars. We have the same focus and goal, and that’s to try to run fast and win races.”

Busch said the entire Stewart-Haas stable, including Tony Stewart and Danica Patrick, is in a pushy mode.

“It’s great to get a couple poles; he’s (Harvick) got a couple wins,” Busch said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us to keep up with his pace. But it’s great to push each other and have the information go back and forth cleanly.”

Brad Keselowski qualified third at 193.195 mph., Kasey Kahne fourth with a lap at 192.933 and Jimmie Johnson fifth at 192.424. Joey Logano, this year’s Daytona 500 champion and winner of last year’s rain-delayed spring race in Texas, qualified sixth at 192.369.

Harvick will attempt to break his 0-for-24 Texas drought in today’s 334-lap, 501-mile race. He’s coming off a second-place finish to Johnson in the Texas 500 in November.

“This is one we’ve circled we want to win,” Harvick said. “The biggest thing is I want to win here so (speedway president) Eddie Gossage will leave me alone. You come to a track where you haven’t won at — and we’ve been fortunate to knock a lot off the list in the last year or so — it’s a race we’ve definitely circled to start the year.”