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Kevin Harvick was just too hot to cool down.

Harvick heated up a cool LiftMaster Pole Night evening on Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway by capturing his third pole position of the year. The two-time Coca-Cola 600 winner thrilled the crowd by setting a blistering, 193.424-mph lap to win the pole for the world’s toughest test of man and machine.

“Our cars have been fast," Harvick explained. "We have qualified well. We just hadn’t put together the weekend. The car unloaded fast. It was very edgy to drive. It was definitely a hairy lap but the car went really well through turns three and four. That’s always our goal, to get the car to turn in the middle of three and four and be able to stay in the gas. The first round, I about spun out in one and two. I had to make some adjustments in what I had to do. From the XFINITY car there is a big difference. So, I was a little bit too aggressive. I was able to find a happy medium, and the crew made the car a little bit better. We were able to capitalize on it and have a fast Ford.”

Kyle Busch, last week’s Monster Energy All-Star Race winner, will start from the outside of Row 1 with a 192.513-mph lap in Round 3 of time trials. Chase Elliott was third-fastest with Matt Kenseth fourth and rookie Erik Jones fifth.

“We had some speed that showed up. Overall I can’t say enough about the guys. We have some performance right now and put it all together. It’s a long, long day Sunday. This just gives us good pit selection. We learned from last Saturday night, track position means a lot. Obviously, it’s better to start up front, so we’ll take that. But it doesn’t matter as much about where you start but where you wind up. It’s a long, grueling race. Good pit selection for us gives us the opportunity to get a good spot for Sunday.”

Defending Coca-Cola 600 winner Martin Truex Jr. will start Sunday’s Memorial Day weekend classic from the eighth position. Dale Earnhardt Jr., the 2000 pole winner, qualified 19th for his 19th and final Coca-Cola 600 start.