Kevin Harvick wins Phoenix pole

— -- AVONDALE, Ariz. -- The only surprise when Kevin Harvick won the pole Friday at Phoenix International Raceway was the fact that he had never won a pole at the track.

The winner of the last three Sprint Cup races at PIR and four of the last five, Harvick posted a speed of 140.751 mph in the final qualifying session on the 1-mile track to edge Joey Logano (140.543) for the CampingWorld.com 500 pole.

With his success at PIR and a fast car built by his Stewart-Haas Racing crew led by Rodney Childers, Harvick is the prohibitive favorite Sunday.

"There are just so many circumstances that you can't control," Harvick said. "There are so many things that can go wrong. There are so many mistakes that you can make and we can make some bad decisions as we go through practice and miss the balance to start the race."

Fourth in practice earlier in the day, Harvick said the key to earning the pole was the same as it was when he won the 2014 Sprint Cup title, which included a win at PIR in November that launched him into the championship race.

"This particular team in Rodney and everybody on the team, even if we're off, they make great adjustments and just communicate and do the things we have to do to make the car better," Harvick said. "So we don't pay a lot of attention to the scoreboard.

"We just try to make our cars drive as good as we can, and in the end, that's working out for us right now."

Logano said Harvick is beatable, but teams "have to work hard and try to figure it out."

"He is able to maintain his tires throughout a long run," Logano said. "I think that is what we all strive for, to figure that part out. We have identified that is where he beats us. We have to fix it.

"Half the battle is figuring out where you are getting beat. We are making strides, and I feel like we are getting closer."

Jamie McMurray will start third Sunday, with Matt Kenseth fourth and Ryan Newman fifth.

Kurt Busch, in his first race of 2015 after a three-week NASCAR suspension, will start eighth.

NASCAR instituted a new rule Thursday that if a team fails to get through pre-qualifying technical inspection after three tries, the driver would lose 15 minutes of future practice time. Only one car failed to pass three times: BK Racing's Matt DiBenedetto will miss 15 minutes during the first practice next week at Auto Club Speedway.

Missing the race were Travis Kvapil and Tanner Berryhill.