Apr 22, 2016 5 min read

Rain washed out qualifying at Richmond International Raceway Friday, giving Kevin Harvick the pole position Sunday for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race based on being the fastest in an abbreviated morning practice session.

Harvick won the pole with a speed of 129.069 mph, edging Joey Logano for the top spot. Logano’s speed was 128.694. The top five also includes Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and hometown favorite Denny Hamlin.

The race, which traditionally has been run on Saturday night, was moved to Sunday afternoon this year and will be the second in a row in the spring at Richmond run on a Sunday. Last year’s race was rained out on Saturday night, and Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch battled for the victory, with Busch prevailing. Harvick would love to see a repeat this time, with one modification.

“From the way it finished last year, I hope it finishes the same way,” Harvick said. “Kurt and I ran very well and had good finishes, obviously. He won the race. Hopefully, we can start building off of where we started and ended last year and try to adapt that to the things we have learned with this style of car this year and have a good day.”

Harvick ran only nine laps in practice before the rain came.

Logano turned 35 laps and credited his team with playing the weather just right.

“We went out there and made our qualifying run off the truck and then focused in on race trim thinking that we weren’t going to qualify anyway,” he said. “The plan was executed perfectly besides second instead of first.”

Logano’s Penske Racing teammate, Brad Keselowski, qualified sixth, followed by Busch, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch and AJ Allmendinger.

Tony Stewart will make his season debut Sunday after missing the first eight races while recovering from a back injury. He made 38 laps in practice, the most of anyone, and will start 18th. Stewart has won three times in his career at Richmond.

Drivers will play Stewart’s fine: Tony Stewart’s peers will pay the $35,000 fine NASCAR levied against the three-time champion for criticizing the series about a potential safety hazard during races.

The nine-member driver council said in a statement released by Denny Hamlin it agreed to equally pay the fine. Stewart is a member of the council, which was formed last year and its members are elected by all the drivers in the Sprint Cup Series.

The statement was first obtained late Thursday night by NBC Sports. In it, the group said it disagreed with the fine levied against Stewart earlier in the day for warning NASCAR that not policing lug nuts on pit road was a safety hazard.

Some teams are not applying all five lug nuts during tire changes for a faster pit stop. It’s led to a rash of loose wheels the last two races.

“We as drivers believe Tony has the right to speak his opinion on topics that pertain to a sport that he has spent nearly two decades helping build as both a driver and an owner,” the statement said. “While we do not condone drivers lashing out freely at NASCAR, we do feel Tony was in his rights to state his opinion. We as a Council support him and do not agree with the fine. Therefore, we fellow council members have agreed to contribute equally to paying his fine.”

The Drivers Council, which meets with NASCAR to discuss any issues pertaining to the sport, consists of Hamlin, Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano. The group added Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch this year to replace outgoing members Jeff Gordon, who retired, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray.

The fine falls under NASCAR’s new behavioral policy.

“For all the work and everything, all the bulletins and all the new stuff we have to do to superspeedway cars and all these other things they want us to do for safety, we can’t even make sure we put five lug nuts on the wheel,” Stewart said Wednesday. “This is not a game you play with safety and that’s exactly the way I feel like NASCAR is treating this. This is not the way to do this.”

NASCAR chairman Brian France said Stewart is “wrong” and the series takes pride in its push for safety.

“I would say this nobody has led, done more and achieved more in safety than we have. It is a never-ending assignment and we accept that,” France said Thursday during a meeting of the Associated Press Sports Editors in New York. “We do take offense that anything we do is somehow leading toward an unsafe environment. Safety … that’s the most important thing we have to achieve.”