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NASCAR at Texas 2019 Qualifying Results: Jimmie Johnson Secures Pole Position
March 30, 2019
Jimmie Johnson dominated qualifying Friday to capture the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.
Johnson finished first in all three rounds of qualifying and beat out Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott by less than a tenth of a second for the pole.
Here are the full results of Friday's qualifying, courtesy of NASCAR.com (time in seconds):
1. Jimmie Johnson: 28.588
2. William Byron: 28.660
3. Chase Elliott: 28.682
4. Daniel Suarez: 28.741
5. Austin Dillon: 28.862
6. Denny Hamlin: 28.895
7. Daniel Hemric: 28.905
8. Joey Logano: 28.928
9. Ty Dillon: 28.956
10. Bubba Wallace: 28.990
11. Erik Jones: 29.071
12. Brad Keselowski: 29.412
13. Ryan Blaney: 28.927
14. Paul Menard: 28.937
15. Michael McDowell: 28.964
16. Kyle Busch: 28.971
17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: 28.971
18. Ryan Newman: 29.005
19. Chris Buescher: 29.016
20. Martin Truex Jr.: 29.161
21. Aric Almirola: 29.226
22. Kyle Larson: 29.226
23. Kevin Harvick: 30.135
24. Alex Bowman: 0.000
25. Clint Bowyer: 29.096
26. Matt DiBenedetto: 29.110
27. Ryan Preece: 29.164
28. David Ragan: 29.265
29. Matt Tifft: 29.265
30. Kurt Busch: 29.283
31. Corey Lajoie: 29.305
32. Landon Cassill: 29.429
33. Parker Kligerman: 29.549
34. B.J. McLeod: 29.844
35. Ross Chastain: 29.987
36. Bayley Currey: 30.235
37. Reed Sorenson: 30.513
38. Garrett Smithley: 30.530
39. Timmy Hill: 31.416
The pole marked Johnson's first of the 2019 season and the first for Hendrick since Byron captured the Daytona 500 pole. Johnson now has 36 career Cup Series poles, but Friday's was his first since 2016, which was the last year he won the points title.
After earning the pole in runaway fashion, Johnson talked about how it felt to be back up front:
While Hendrick Motorsports had a banner day, Alex Bowman did not enjoy as much success as his teammates. He will start 24th due to a mishap at the start of the second round of qualifying.
As seen in the following video, Bowman hit the wall, which caused a delay and rendered him unable to continue:
Bowman wasn't the only notable driver to falter in the second round, as Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch all failed to make the final round.
Busch has fallen short of the final round of qualifying in consecutive weeks after winning the previous two Cup Series races.
While it wasn't a huge surprise to see Johnson fare well at a track he has long dominated, there were some surprises who managed to qualify inside the top 10. Chief among them are Daniel Hemric and Bubba Wallace, who are both outside the top 25 in points.
It isn't expected that they will vie for a win Sunday, but Johnson may have his best chance to take the checkered flag in a long time.
His average finish of 9.8 at Texas is second to only Elliott among active drivers, and his seven wins are four more than the next closest competitor—Kyle Busch.
Johnson has not won a race since 2017, but considering how good his car looked in qualifying and practice, he is undoubtedly among the top contenders entering the O'Reilly Auto Parts 500.