Kevin Harvick bests Joey Logano for Pocono pole

Kevin Harvick rode the wave of momentum from his win last weekend at New Hampshire to take the pole for tomorrow's Gander Outdoors 400 at the Pocono Raceway.

Harvick was one of the few remaining drivers to turn a lap in Saturday's qualifying session. He lapped the 2.5-mile triangular-shaped superspeedway in 51.707 seconds to besiege Joey Logano for the top spot on the grid by .203s.

The run gave the driver of the No. 4 Busch Beer Ford Mustang his first official pole at Pocono. He was the fastest qualifier one year ago, but had his lap disallowed due to a setup infraction. The circuit is one of two, the other being Kentucky, where Harvick is winless.

With a playoff berth secured, the 43-year-old from Bakersfield, California is laser-focused on crossing Pocono off his win list tomorrow.

"It has been a very good track for me. My guys and the whole company knows that we would love to cross this one off, one of the last two of tracks that we haven't won at," Harvick said.

"The first race this year we had a great car and the right strategy and jacked it up and the steering box broke. So, you know, it's kind of been one thing after another like that. Tomorrow, it's going to take a fast car and it's going to take everything falling your way so you can get the strategy right."

Logano will make his fourth front row start of the season but his first from second place. Aric Almirola completed a Ford sweep of the top three ahead of the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Erik Jones.

Austin Dillon wound up fifth ahead of three-time Pocono winner Jimmie Johnson in sixth. Kyle Busch, who has won three of the last four Pocono races, ended up seventh ahead of June polesitter William Byron in eighth.

Kurt Busch and Daniel Suarez completed the top ten.

Just outside the top ten were the remaining two JGR Toyotas led by two-time Pocono winner Martin Truex, Jr. ending up 11th ahead of four-time Pocono master Denny Hamlin in 12th. The JGR-backed Leavine Family Racing Toyota of Matt DiBenedetto will start 13th one week removed from scoring a top-five finish at New Hampshire.

Practice crashes sent Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson to backup cars and the pair ended up 23rd and 29th respectively.