Austin Dillon beats Kevin Harvick for Chicagoland pole

Austin Dillon nipped Kevin Harvick for the pole of tomorrow’s Camping World 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway.

The driver of the No. 3 Dow Chemical Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing bested Harvick for the number one qualifying position with a lap of 30.636 seconds. The lap was a slim 0.030s quicker than Harvick’s time.

Dillon, who claimed poles earlier this spring at Auto Club Speedway and Talladega, is eager to capitalize on his qualifying performance and turn around what has been a less than stellar season.

“I had a good meeting between first and second practice and had a good idea what we wanted to make changes on, we were able to make them, and the car was fast,” said the six-time MENCS pole sitter. “I’m pretty proud of these guys.

“It’s our third pole this year, we just need to translate it to the race. We’ve had four really bad weeks of getting wrecked and having random stuff happening. We need a good run and this is a good way to start it.

Harvick found himself sandwiched ahead of the second Richard Childress Racing entry of rookie Daniel Hemric taking his best career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starting position in third.

Jimmie Johnson claimed his best starting position since his pole at Texas in April and will start in fourth while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch landed just his second top-five starting spot of the season by clocking the fifth quickest time.

Clint Bowyer made it two Stewart-Haas Fords in the top ten by qualifying sixth and while Front Row Motorsports' Michael McDowell notched his first top ten start of the season in seventh.

Sophomore Alex Bowman slotted in eighth after pacing one of this afternoon’s practice session. Denny Hamlin was the quickest Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in ninth while Ryan Blaney carried the flag for Team Penske in tenth.

The remaining JGR Toyota Camrys and Team Penske Ford Mustangs were scattered throughout the field with defending race winner Kyle Busch only posting the 17th fastest time directly ahead of teammate Martin Truex, Jr in 18th while Erik Jones only mustered the 21st quickest time.

The remaining two Team Penske Fords also turned some unexceptional times with the pair of former Cup Champions Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano ending up 12th and 19th respectively.