Kurt Busch leads Stewart-Haas Racing 1-2-3 in weather-shortened qualifying at Texas

Teammates Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer will start at the front of the field in Sunday’s Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer will start in the top-three positions in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 after inclement weather prompted NASCAR to cut short Cup Series qualifying Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Busch posted an average lap speed of 197.368 mph around the 1.5-mile track to lead the first round of qualifying. And when lightning rolled into the Fort Worth area before the start of Round 2, NASCAR canceled the remainder of qualifying and set the starting lineup off speeds from the first round, giving Busch the pole position.

“It was a unique situation with just having the one round,” Busch said. “The thought that weather was in the area hadn’t crossed our minds, but yet you have to play all three rounds as smart as you can. We went a little bit aggressive on that first round and it paid off. I think Round 2 would have picked up even more speed and Round 3 would have been where we had to make a big gamble to see if we could still maintain that pace.”

SHR has been the dominant team through the first six weeks of the season. Harvick won three straight races, while Bowyer won two weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway. Although Busch and Aric Almirola are both winless, each has been consistently in contention and provisionally hold playoff spots.

“It is neat to have our Fords at Stewart-Haas hauling the mail like this,” Busch said. “When you attack the track and stand on the gas hard it is a great feeling to know it is going to stick. Stewart-Haas Racing has been on fire recently.”

Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin will start fourth and fifth, respectively, Sunday. Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, defending race winner Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Larson complete the top 10.

Rookie William Byron qualified 33rd, but an engine change will force him to relinquish that position and he will start at the rear of the 37-car field Sunday. The engine issue caused the 20-year-old to miss a large portion of practice earlier Friday.