Daniel Suarez beats SHR teammate Aric Almirola for Kentucky pole

Daniel Suarez bested Stewart Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola to take the pole for tomorrow night’s Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway.

The 27-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico was the last driver to make a qualifying run out of the 36 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers entered in tomorrow evening’s 267 lap race.

Almirola was also among the final drivers to qualify and set a sporty lap of 29.380 seconds which bumped early pacesetter Brad Keselowski off the pole.

Suarez roared out of the gate six cars later and responded with a lap that was a whopping .126s quicker than his teammate’s at 29.254s to secure his second career Busch Pole Award.

“The car has been fast the entire day,” said the driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Mustang. “I feel like we had a fast car in practice and we now have the fastest car in qualifying. I’m really proud of my guys performance – everybody who makes this program possible because we have been working really hard.”

While he applauded his crew for propelling him to the pole, Suarez feels more motivated than ever to claim his elusive first win in NASCAR’s top division.

“I really want to win so bad. I haven’t been in victory lane for a while,” he said.

“The last time I was in Victory Lane was in Brazil. I’ve been looking forward to bringing the trophy home for a while. We have a really fast car and now it’s up to me to make it happen tomorrow night.”

The 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion’s performance moved Almirola to the second starting spot for the fifth time of the season.

Three-time Kentucky winner Brad Keselowski was quickest in final practice and completed a Ford sweep of the top three which netted him his best starting spot on 1.5-mile oval of the year.

Kurt Busch paced the opening practice this afternoon and ended up the quickest of the Chevrolet squad in fourth while Kevin Harvick secured three SHR cars in the top five with the fifth fastest lap.

Daniel Hemric scored his fourth top ten start of the season by qualifying sixth ahead of Clint Bowyer in seventh just. Martin Truex, Jr was the quickest Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry in eighth in his bid to claim his third straight win at Kentucky.

Austin Dillon was sandwiched between two JGR Toyotas in ninth as inaugural Kentucky race winner Kyle Busch competed the top ten.