Dillon wins pole for AAA Texas 500

Austin Dillon

Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images

Although he's rarely seen without a black cowboy hat on top of his head, Austin Dillon would love nothing more than to get another at Texas Motor Speedway, where the race winner gets to celebrate in victory lane with a cowboy hat and pair of six-shooters.

Dillon bested a pair of Chase contenders in Friday's qualifying session to score his second pole of the season and just the third of his career as he looks to notch his first career Sprint Cup victory in Sunday's AAA Texas 500.

Dillon topped the third and final round of qualifying with lap of 28.081 seconds (192.301 mph) in the No. 3 Chevrolet to beat out Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick as they look to advance into the next round on the Chase for the Sprint Cup with just two races left in the Round of 8. Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson – both eliminated from the Chase in earlier rounds – completed the top five qualifiers.

Dillon, who himself was narrowly eliminated in the second round of the Chase, would love to finish out the year with a victory under his belt, and Texas seems as good a place as any to get it done.

"This is big for us," said Dillon. "We missed the Chase by just two feet. We want to prove that we can win a race by the end of this year.

"I actually thought I hurt myself because I changed my line, but it actually made me faster through (Turns) 1 and 2. I was watching (Kevin) Harvick's line and I changed it to kind of mimic his and we went faster. Just glad our fall off was good and we get to start from the pole and have the number one pit stall."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"] Joey Logano had paced the opening round of qualifying and came up fourth in the second round, but fell short of overtaking Dillon for the pole with a speed of 194.266 for his second-straight outside pole in the last two races.

Logano is currently fifth in the Chase standings, just four points from the cutoff to advance to the Championship 4.

"That is really frustrating," said Logano after taking second. "Last week we missed it by eight thousandths and this week by six thousandths. That is the name of the game though. That is how close the competition is.

"Second stings the most. Second always stings and we were second here in the spring and here we are again and last week as well. The poles are so close and that is the only thing that really matters on Fridays."

Dillon's teammate Paul Menard qualified sixth, followed by Chase contender Matt Kenseth, rookie Ryan Blaney and Chase drivers Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch.

Other championship hopefuls include Denny Hamlin in 17^th, Jimmie Johnson in 19^th and Kyle Busch in 24^th. Johnson is already guaranteed a spot in the Championship 4 after winning last Sunday at Martinsville.

POLE WINNERS QUOTES

GREAT JOB TO WIN THE POLE"Man, that's huge! Great job to our Bad Boy Realtreee Chevy; everybody at Dow for supporting us and getting us this far. It is our second pole of the year, and I can't be happier for RCR and everybody back at the shop. A lot of hard word and effort goes on. We missed the Chase by just two feet. We want to prove that we can win a race by the end of this year. This is big for us. I thought I messed up the lap truthfully. I got a lot of good speed off of two, but turn three I turned in and missed my corner, but it worked out. Proud of these guys and everybody back home. Have a Coke tonight.

HOW MUCH DID JUST BEING IN THE CHASE HELP THIS RACE TEAM? "It's big. Truthfully I felt like together as a team, our team is very strong. We've just been missing here and there. It is going to be good to have another year with this group of guys to see what we can do next year."

WHERE DID THAT LAST LITTLE BIT COME FROM?
"I don't know. I looked at dartfish as much as I could there and tried to define my line. I thought I screwed myself actually because I turned in and I got tight. I wish I would have done my regular line in (Turns) 1 and 2, but the new line worked."

WHAT IS IT ABOUT TEXAS THAT AGREES WITH AUSTIN DILLON?
"I have enjoyed racing here, I think we get a new cowboy hat is what the big deal is. I like those cowboy hats I wear them quite often. I'm glad I'm going to go get one right now."

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