Austin Dillon wins pole at Auto Club Speedway

Austin Dillon has the second pole of his Sprint Cup Series career.

The driver of the No. 3 will start first in Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway. He kicked Kevin Harvick off the pole with just seconds to go in the final round of Friday’s qualifying session. Dillon’s only other pole came in the 2014 Daytona 500.

Dillon has been fast to start the 2016 season. After tallying nine top-10 finishes in the first 85 races of his Cup career, the 25-year-old has three in the first four races of 2016.

“I entered really hard the [qulaifying] run before in 1 and 2 and I think it hurt me,” Dillon said. “I just lifted and pumped the brakes a little bit earlier and coasted into 1 and it really got to the gas good. When it came to 3 and 4 I just tried to keep my gas foot in it as much as I could and use the whole track. I felt like we had a good pull to the start/finish line. It felt like it kicked up and was running well. Just proud to put that No. 3 back where it needs to be. Hopefully, we can do this a few more times this year.”

Harvick starts second while Denny Hamlin is third. Ryan Newman, Dillon’s teammate at Richard Childress Racing, starts fourth and Carl Edwards rounds out the top five. Here’s how the starting lineup will look:

1. Austin Dillon
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Ryan Newman
5. Carl Edwards
6. Kyle Busch
7. Trevor Bayne
8. Chase Elliott
9. Joey Logano
10. Jamie McMurray
11. AJ Allmendinger
12. Kasey Kahne
13. Paul Menard
14. Ryan Blaney
15. Brad Keselowski
16. Chris Buescher
17. Martin Truex Jr.
18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
19. Jimmie Johnson
20. Matt Kenseth
21. Brian Scott
22. Greg Biffle
23. Casey Mears
24. Brian Vickers
25. Aric Almirola
26. Kurt Busch
27. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
28. Regan Smith
29. Clint Bowyer
30. Michael McDowell
31. Danica Patrick
32. Kyle Larson
33. Matt DiBenedetto
34. Landon Cassill
35. David Ragan
36. Cole Whitt
37. Josh Wise
38. Michael Annett
39. Jeffrey Earnhardt