While much of the focus at the Oral-B USA 500 will be on Tony Stewart’s return to the race track after being involved in the tragic accident that took Kevin Ward Jr.‘s life, Stewart’s teammate Kevin Harvick may end up being the star of the show after he grabbed his sixth pole of the season with a qualifying lap of 190.398 mph.
How to follow Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway online, TV schedule, radio and more
Kevin Harvick leads the pack for the Oral-B USA 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway after his sixth pole of the 2014 NASCAR season, while teammate (and team owner) Tony Stewart qualifies 12th after returning to action.
Mike Ehrmann
After he stumbled through the first round of qualifying, Harvick wasn't sure he was going to be able to grab his second consecutive pole. As he told the Associated Press, "The first run wasn't very good due to the driver not doing a good job." Thankfully Stewart -- who owns the car Harvick drives as part of the Stewart-Haas race team -- was there to set him straight.
“I felt like I had made a mistake the first run and never really got in the rhythm of doing exactly what he was doing,” Harvick said. “He told me to go back to the way I was practicing and used to going around racetracks.
“It was definitely the right decision. He was definitely a big help in making sure. He had already run, knowing that it was going to be better lower.”
Tony Stewart returns
Stewart qualified 12th, and has been allowed to run in the end-of-year Chase for the Sprint Cup if he is able to qualify for it, which has been seen as a controversial decision in some circles. He’ll have to win one of the next two races to qualify, something made significantly harder by the quality of drivers who qualified ahead of him, some of whom are attempting to qualify for the Chase in the exact same way.
Although Brad Keselowski, who joins Harvick in the front row, has already qualified for the Chase, other drivers in front of Stewart like Kyle Larson and Ryan Newman will look to automatically qualify with their first victories of the season. While Newman is technically still in the Chase, Larson has dropped out of the top 16 and would all but require a victory to make it to the playoffs.
You can watch the race on ESPN beginning with pre-race coverage at 7:00 p.m ET on NASCAR Countdown featuring Mike Massaro, Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace. Live race coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. with Allen Bestwick, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the booth. The green flag is tentatively scheduled for 7:46 p.m. In addition to the television coverage, viewers with a subscription to RaceView will be able to follow the race online. Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM Satellite NASCAR Channel 90 will provide radio coverage.
Oral-B USA 500 coverage (all times Eastern):
TV: ESPN -- 7 p.m.
Green flag: Approximately 7:46 p.m.
Online: NASCAR.com RaceView (subscription required)
Radio: Performance Racing Network -- Sirius-XM channel 90
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