NASCAR Texas 2015 qualifying results: Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick give Stewart-Haas Racing front-row sweep

For the second time in three races, the Stewart-Haas Racing duo of Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick will start on the front row. Busch’s lap of 193.847 miles per hour earned him the pole position in qualifying Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Busch and Harvick also qualified first and second for the March 22 race at Auto Club Speedway. Harvick went on to finish that race second, with Busch third. The current series points leader, Harvick owns a pair of victories this season while Busch, who missed three races serving a suspension, is winless.

“It’s great to be able to shadow (Harvick) right now and to get a couple of poles,” Busch said. “He has a couple of wins so we still have our work cut out for us to keep up with his pace. But in short runs -- qualifying sessions and things like that -- it’s great to push each other and to have the information going back and forth cleanly.

“It’s an exciting time to continue to make Stewart-Haas stronger ... everybody seems to be pulling the rope in the same direction.”

The pole was Busch’s 18th of his career, second of the season and first at Texas. Saturday will mark Harvick’s first time on the front row of the mile-and-a-half track, where’s he yet to win in 24 career starts.

“It’s just fun to be a part of a group of guys like this,” Harvick said. “I’m just really proud of the No. 41 team and Kurt and those guys for doing what they do and really, everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. I feel like we all get better every week and that’s what we need to do.”

Qualifying third through fifth were Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson. Johnson dominated the fall Texas race last season, leading 191 of a possible 341 laps.

“It’s nice to have just raw speed in the car,” Johnson said. “I feel like that will translate to what we need in the race.”

Rounding out the top-10 qualifiers were defending race-winner Joey Logano, followed by Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray.

The past eight Texas races have been won by a driver starting 10th or better.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fast in both practice sessions earlier Friday, but that speed never manifested in qualifying, as he never made it past the first of three rounds. He will start 25th. Other notable names not advancing out of Round 1 include AJ Allmendinger (26th), Clint Bowyer (27th) and David Ragan (30th).

Brendan Gaughan and Jeb Burton failed to qualify.