In the first round of Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Richmond Raceway, Denny Hamlin barely went fast enough to advance. That doesn’t matter now, though, after a stellar second lap put the Joe Gibbs Racing driver on pole.
Behind the wheel of the No. 11 FedEx Cares Toyota Camry XSE, Hamlin posted a lap time of 22.850 seconds (118.162mph) to capture the pole position for Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at the three-quarter-mile Richmond Raceway.
Of the 10 drivers that advanced to the second round of qualifying, Hamlin was the only driver able to improve upon his time from the first round, picking up just 0.008 seconds. With everybody else dropping off significantly, that allowed the No. 11 to stay on top.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex, Jr. will start from the outside of the front row, fueling a rematch between the two drivers who fought it out for the victory in NASCAR Overtime in the Spring.
Josh Berry had the fastest overall time in the first round, but couldn’t back it up when it counted the most, relegating him to a third-place start. It’s the No. 4 team’s fifth top-five start of the year, and his fourth in the last seven races.
Austin Dillon was quickest in Saturday’s 45-minute practice session, and backed up that speed with a sixth-place qualifying effort, his best non-superspeedway qualifying result since Homestead last Fall.
Chris Buescher, the defending winner of Richmond’s Fall event, qualified seventh, with Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, and Tyler Reddick completing the top-10.
STARTING LINEUP: NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Richmond
Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch narrowly missed an opportunity to advance into the final round of qualifying on Saturday, both missing out by the narrowest of margins. The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion will start 11th, with Busch in 12th.
William Byron (13th), Ty Gibbs (14th), Kyle Larson (15th), Alex Bowman (17th), Austin Cindric (18th), and Brad Keselowski (29th) were other notables who failed to advance to the final round of qualifying for Sunday’s Cook Out 400.
With the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs on the horizon, drivers involved in the battle to claim a spot based on points position are littered throughout the pack, including Ty Gibbs and Ross Chastain, both on the positive side of the cutline, who qualified 15th and 22nd.
Parker Retzlaff, making his NASCAR Cup Series debut in the No. 66 Ford Mustang for MBM Motorsports, will round out the 37-driver field when the green flag drops on Sunday evening at Richmond Raceway.
