For the first time in his career, Kevin Harvick will lead the field to the green flag at Texas Motor Speedway.

Harvick laid down the fastest lap Friday night in qualifying for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at 198.405 mph. It is Harvick’s first pole at Texas, second of the season and 36th of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career.

• Starting lineup

“It’s been a stressful day,” Harvick said. “Coming and breaking in a new racetrack and then going out there and running as fast as we had to run for qualifying, I have to say thank you to the Xfinity [Series] guys for letting me run that car this weekend because I really feel like the reps allowed us to learn some things in that car that I was able to apply here.

“So, it’s been an interesting day and I’m looking forward to trying to get our car right for the race and trying to get to victory lane on Sunday so [track president] Eddie Gossage will leave me alone.”

Harvick is winless at Texas in 28 previous starts.

Ryan Blaney will start alongside Harvick on the front row. Blaney qualified second for the second time in the season’s first seven races at 198.020 mph. Clint Bowyer will start third (198.020 mph), Joey Logano will start fourth (197.759 mph), and Brad Keselowski will start fifth (197.563 mph).

The rest of the start top 10 are Jamie McMurray (196.492 mph), Martin Truex Jr. (196.421 mph), Matt Kenseth (196.299 mph), Ryan Newman (195.525 mph), and Kurt Busch (195.002 mph).

There was one incident during qualifying.

Jimmie Johnson spun during the first round but avoided hitting anything. However, the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet had three flat-spotted tires and Johnson was unable to participate in the remainder of qualifying. The team will change tires for Sunday’s race and Johnson will have to start at the rear of the field.

“I think we used up all our luck in Homestead (winning the championship) last year,” Johnson joked. “I took the [flag] and we were in a position to run two (laps) to start, just to see what was going to happen, and Chad [Knaus] called me off when he saw the time and when I heard that I dumped the throttle real hard to try and check up and roll through the corner slowly, and when I dumped out of the throttle it pitched the car sideways and I started chasing it going into the turn.

“I thought I had it saved and then I got into all those marbles and kept getting closer and closer to the wall and spun … Glad the Lowe’s Chevy is still in one piece and we’ll fight back from here.”

Nine drivers did not attempt a qualifying lap due to their cars not making it through inspection before time expired in the first round.

As a result, Erik Jones, Chase Elliott, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Kasey Kahne, Derrike Cope, Kyle Busch, and Timmy Hill will start at the rear of the field. Busch is the defending race winner.