NASCAR at Pocono 2018 Qualifying Results: Daniel Suarez Wins After Inspections

After Kevin Harvick's and Kyle Busch's cars failed the post-qualifying inspection, Daniel Suarez was awarded the pole for Sunday's 2018 Gander Outdoors 400 at Pocono Raceway. 

Harvick was initially in the top spot after posting a qualifying speed of 177.75 mph, followed by Busch in second.

Per Kelly Crandall of Racer Magazine, Harvick's car failed the body scan and Busch's car failed the chassis station. 

This marks the first career pole win for Suarez. He will also be chasing his first victory in two seasons on the Monster Energy circuit win in 2018. 

Joining Suarez on the front row will be Denny Hamlin. The rest of the top five includes Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski and Jamie McMurray. 

After multiple cars failed inspection, here's the full starting lineup from Long Pond, Pennsylvania, via NASCAR.com: 

Row 1: Daniel Suarez, Denny Hamlin

Row 2: Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski

Row 3: Jamie McMurray, Chase Elliott

Row 4: Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. 

Row 5: Ryan Newman, Alex Bowman

Row 6: Matt Kenseth, Chris Buescher

Row 7: Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger

Row 8: Ty Dillon, David Ragan

Row 9: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Matt DiBenedetto

Row 10: Jeffrey Earnhardt, JJ Yeley

Row 11: Corey LaJoie, Gray Gaulding

Row 12: Kyle Weatherman, Landon Cassill

Row 13: Reed Sorensen, BJ McLeod

Row 14: Timmy Hill, Kyle Busch

Row 15: Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano

Row 16: Clint Bowyer, Kyle Larson

Row 17: Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola

Row 18: Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard

Row 19: Austin Dillon, William Byron

Row 20: Bubba Wallace, Kasey Kahne

Suarez was a pleasant surprise Saturday even before the violations pushed him into the pole. He posted the third-fastest time during qualifying. The 26-year-old is currently 20th in the standings this season and is still in search of his first win on the Monster Energy circuit. 

Suarez has only finished inside the top 15 twice in the past nine races. He's got a stiff challenge ahead of him, but Saturday's qualifying run was a huge boost to his confidence. 

Harvick and Busch now have their work cut out for them after initially appearing to carry over their momentum from last week at New Hampshire. They were the top two finishers in that race, with the No. 4 car finding a way to nudge Busch out of the way to earn the checkered flag:

Appearing on Fox Sports' Race Hub (via For The Win's Michelle R. Martinelli) earlier this week, Harvick spoke about his friendly rivalry with Busch:

"There's a respectful rivalry there. I love racing Kyle Busch, and I love the things he does and the things he can do in a race car are great. And as a team, we love beating him, and as a driver, I love beating him. You go out on the race track and that's your goal - (it's) to go out and beat the best, and right now, it's been (Busch) and (Truex), and they've been the cars to beat over the last few weeks."

Busch, who won this event in 2017, enters Pocono Raceway atop the Monster Energy Series standings with 844 points. Harvick is in second with 791 points, but he also leads all drivers with six wins, 15 top-five finishes and 1,052 laps led. 

With that duo starting from the back of the pack, this is an opportunity for Harvick to close that 53-point gap even more if he can get off to a fast start and Busch struggles to find his footing. 

It was a rather disappointing qualifying day for Martin Truex Jr. He originally qualified in 14th, but thanks to all of the disqualifications, he'll start from eighth in the same row as Kurt Busch. Expectations were much higher for the No. 78 car, though. 

Truex won the first race of the season at Pocono in June after qualifying fourth. He's finished inside the top five in each of the past five races, with his lone hiccup being an 18th-place finish at Michigan International Speedway after the victory in Pennsylvania. 

The 40-car field will start their engines on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET to determine which driver will earn bragging rights with the playoffs starting in September.