BUSCH

• Harvick grabs pole for Nationwide race at Kansas

  
  

  Kansas City, KS (Sports Network) - Kevin Harvick won the pole for Saturday's Kansas Lottery 300 Nationwide Series race at the Kansas Speedway. The No.33 Chevrolet driver circled the 1.5-mile oval in 31.354 seconds (172.227 m.p.h.).

  The pole victory was Harvick's first pole of the season and the 17th of his Nationwide career.

  Starting alongside Harvick will be fellow Sprint Cup regular Mark Martin, who posted the second fastest qualifying time of 31.433.

  David Stremme (31.472) and defending series champion Carl Edwards (31.499) will start on the second row.

  Other notable drivers and their starting positions include: Clint Bowyer (17th), Kyle Busch (18th) and Brad Keselowski (28th).

  The battle for the series championship between Bowyer and Edwards continues at Kansas.

  Edwards' fifth-place finish coupled with a 10th-place run for Bowyer last Saturday at Dover allowed Edwards to move within 186 points of Bowyer with six races remaining in the season.

  Bowyer has yet to win a Nationwide race at Kansas but has finished fourth and fifth in the last two races there.

  Edwards hopes his track record will improve at Kansas, where he has scored just one top-10 finish in three races there. He finished sixth at Kansas in 2006 but has finished 27th and 38th in his two other races there.

  Keselowski, currently 248 points behind Bowyer, has finished 26th and 36th in his first two races at Kansas.

  Busch is the defending race winner. He won at Dover after leading 157 of 207 laps.

  The green flag is scheduled to drop around 3:30 p.m. (et).

  09/27 13:20:39 ET