After finishing 20th in the FireKeepers 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, Chris Buescher will be on the pole for the Consumers Energy 400, the second race of a NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader weeekend at Michigan, on Sunday.
The top-20 starting positions on Sunday were determined by an inversion of the top-20 finishing order of Sunday’s race. As a result, Kevin Harvick, the winner of the FireKeepers 400, begin his bid for a third-straight MIS win and a fifth all-time track win from the 20th position Sunday.
“We are a week to week team,” Harvick said. “We talked about this years ago. We want to go to the track and worry about one week at a time. We want to be competitive and win as many races as we can and see where it falls in the end. These guys are awesome and when we come to Michigan to ride a car like that is unbelievable.”
Harvick dominated Saturday’s race, leading more than half of the 161-lap distance. He’ll share the fifth row of Sunday’s starting grid with Saturday’s runner-up, Michigan native Brad Keselowski.
We put a good effort to kind of maximize our day and that is what we did, finished second,” Keselowski said after Saturday’s race. “Proud of everyone on the Discount Tire Ford Mustang team. We will go back to work on it and hopefully find a little bit more for the race tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, one of Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, Clint Bowyer, will start next to Buescher on the front row Sunday after finishing 19th in Saturday’s race.
“We got back in traffic in the final stage and were really loose,” Bowyer said. “You don’t want to be in the back at this place, it was like gridlock. We ran well early, got some positions in overtime today and we start second tomorrow so I’m optimistic.”
Tyler Reddick and Matt Kenseth will start in row two after finishes in the back of the top-20 on Saturday.
“We avoided a couple late-race accidents to pick up a few more spots but didn’t quite get to where we wanted to be today,” Reddick said after the FireKeepers Casino 400. “Good news is that we get another shot at it with our #8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro tomorrow.”
Another SHR driver, Aric Almirola, will start fifth and share row three on Sunday’s starting grid with Matt DiBenedetto. Starting seventh through 10th for the Consumers Energy 400 will be William Byron, Christopher Bell, Jimmie Johnson and Erik Jones.
After the top-20 inversion, positions 21st through 39th on starting grid mirror those finishing positions from Saturday’s race. Alex Bowman’s finish of 21st in the FireKeepers Casino 400 was just one position shy of putting him on the pole for Sunday’s race. As a result, he’ll start 21st.
