Denny Hamlin scored the 38th pole of his NASCAR Cup Series career on Saturday at Sonoma Raceway for Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350. Hamlin’s fast lap in Round 2 of Saturday’s qualifying session was a 77.719-second circuit around the 1.99-mile California road course.
This is Hamlin’s second pole position of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, as he also scored the pole at Talladega Superspeedway a couple of months ago.
Hamlin was just shy of a tenth of a second faster than Tyler Reddick, who pilots the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota Camry.
RELATED: NASCAR Cup Series Toyota / Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Starting Lineup
Michael McDowell, who turned the fastest lap of any driver in the opening round of qualifying, was able to secure the third starting spot for Sunday’s race in Round 2 of qualifying. Christopher Bell will line up alongside McDowell from the fourth position in Row 2 on Sunday.
AJ Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr., Daniel Suarez and Chase Elliott rounded out the top-10 starters for Sunday’s race at Sonoma.
Austin Dillon surprised by out-qualifying his Richard Childress Racing teammate Kyle Busch on Saturday. Dillon slotted in 11th, which made him the fastest driver to not advance to the second round of qualifying on Saturday.
Busch will start alongside Dillon in position 12.
Kyle Larson, who had dominated every session of on-track activity at Sonoma Raceway this week between the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series, made some miscues during his qualifying attempts in round 1, and was not fast enough to lock into Round 2 of qualifying.
As a result, Larson will start Sunday’s race from the 16th position.
2023 NASCAR Cup Series Toyota / Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Qualifying Results
