Denny Hamlin Leads JGR Sweep in Bristol Qualifying

Denny Hamlin led a Joe Gibb Racing sweep of the top three positions on his way to capturing the pole with a record-breaking run in Friday’s qualifying sessions for tomorrow night’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Rainier Ehrhardt/NASCAR via Getty Images

Denny Hamlin turned a lap of 14.602 seconds (131.407 mph) in the third and final session to knock his teammate Kyle Busch of the top spot and lock up his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season. Hamlin’s record-setting lap easily eclipsed the previous mark of 131.362 mph set by Kevin Harvick at this same race just one year ago.

Kyle Busch held on for the second spot, earning his best start since taking the pole at Pocono three weeks ago. Carl Edwards grabbed the third qualifying spot, giving JGR a sweep of the top three for the second week in a row. David Ragan and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.

Hamlin’s pole-winning effort was the 22nd of his career and third in 20 starts at Bristol, where he has one career victory – winning the this same event in 2012.

“It looks like I really got the car working the way I needed to there in that final practice. A testament to these guys and what Dave Rogers (crew chief) did for us," said Hamlin. “Our FedEx Ground Camry obviously was very fast that last round and Dave made the great adjustments to it to pick up the speed and I think that hopefully we’ll have something that we can race with them tomorrow night."

Kyle Busch rolled into Friday’s qualifying session after setting the time to beat in the final practice session. Busch then led the opening round of qualifying and finished second behind his brother Kurt in the second round, but didn’t quite have enough to beat out Hamlin for the pole.

“It’s a JGR top-three there," said Busch. “Great effort for everyone on this Skittles Camry, these guys are doing a great job. I couldn’t be more pleased with just everybody’s effort.

“We were just a little too free there in the second segment and the first run of the third segment. It’s a little edgy up there so you try not to push too hard, but still make a good lap and come back safely. Then there at the end we tried a ‘Hail Mary’ and it worked, it picked us up speed, but it didn’t pick us up that last spot."

Ragan’s fourth-place starting spot will be his fourth top-five start of the season, and it couldn’t came at a better time after finding out he’ll be looking for a new ride next year with the announcement that Michael Waltrip Racing will be folding at the end of the season.

Ragan, who has driven for three teams this season – including nine races filling in the injured Kyle Busch – is hoping to race his way to just his second top-five finish of the year.

“We’re pretty happy with that starting spot, but I’ll always wonder if we didn’t have to run so many laps that second round if we would’ve had a shot at the pole," said Ragan, who ran a total of 12 laps in the three rounds of qualifying. “I really thought we had a shot at the pole and just didn’t have enough speed that second round. I thought we had enough speed to advance to the third round pretty easy and we had to run a few extra laps and I think those extra three or four laps on our tires probably cost us a shot at the pole."

Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson made of the rest of the top ten qualifiers.

Missing the race were Travis Kvapil, Jeb Burton and Reed Sorenson.

Five-time Bristol winner Jeff Gordon, starting in his 46th and final race at the half-mile oval, will roll off 24th driving a retro “Rainbow Warriors" DuPont paint scheme on his no. 24 Chevrolet. The track recently honored Gordon by naming a section of seats on the backstretch the “Jeff Gordon Terrace"

Lineup

Pos # Driver Manufacturer Sponsor Speed Time Behind
1 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Ground 131.407 14.602 Leader
2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Skittles 131.263 14.618 0.016
3 19 Carl Edwards Toyota Stanley 130.655 14.686 0.084
4 55 David Ragan Toyota Aaron's Online Dream Machine 130.46 14.708 0.106
5 22 Joey Logano Ford Shell Pennzoil 130.344 14.721 0.119
6 2 Brad Keselowski Ford Miller Lite 130.327 14.723 0.121
7 4 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Budweiser / Jimmy John's 130.3 14.726 0.124
8 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr Ford Fastenal Ford Fusion 130.123 14.746 0.144
9 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota 5-Hour Energy 130.053 14.754 0.152
10 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet LOWE'S PRO SERVICES 129.947 14.766 0.164
11 41 Kurt Busch Chevrolet Haas Automation 129.447 14.823 0.221
12 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet Target 128.848 14.892 0.29
13 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota Dollar General 129.675 14.797 0.195
14 51 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet Brandt 129.351 14.834 0.232
15 21 Ryan Blaney Ford SKF 129.212 14.85 0.248
16 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet Dow 129.151 14.857 0.255
17 16 Greg Biffle Ford Cheez-It Ford Fusion 128.822 14.895 0.293
18 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Caterpillar 128.701 14.909 0.307
19 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet Great Clips 128.606 14.92 0.318
20 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet Nationwide 128.537 14.928 0.326
21 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet McDonald's/Cessna 128.262 14.96 0.358
22 6 Trevor Bayne Ford Advocare Ford Fusion 128.193 14.968 0.366
23 78 Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet Furniture Row/Visser Precision 128.159 14.972 0.37
24 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Axalta 127.988 14.992 0.39
25 47 AJ Allmendinger Chevrolet Bush's Grillin Beans 128.563 14.925 0.323
26 9 Sam Hornish Jr Ford Blue Emu 128.253 14.961 0.359
27 34 Brett Moffitt Ford No Escape 128.176 14.97 0.368
28 13 Casey Mears Chevrolet No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS 127.92 15 0.398
29 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet Knauf / Menards 127.801 15.014 0.412
30 95 Michael McDowell Ford Thrivent Financial 127.605 15.037 0.435
31 43 Aric Almirola Ford Smithfield 127.563 15.042 0.44
32 10 Danica Patrick Chevrolet GoDaddy 127.537 15.045 0.443
33 35 Cole Whitt Ford Speed Stick 127.461 15.054 0.452
34 32 Josh Wise Ford VISONE RV PARTS 127.368 15.065 0.463
35 46 Michael Annett Chevrolet Pilot Flying J 127.241 15.08 0.478
36 7 Alex Bowman Chevrolet Accell Construction 127.208 15.084 0.482
37 38 David Gilliland Ford Cash Cash 126.964 15.113 0.511
38 23 J.J. Yeley Toyota VooDoo BBQ Sauce & Grill 126.821 15.13 0.528
39 40 Landon Cassill Chevrolet Carsforsale.com 126.645 15.151 0.549
40 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Mobil 1 126.562 15.161 0.559
41 98 Timmy Hill Ford Premium Motorsports 126.063 15.221 0.619
42 83 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota Cosmo Motors 125.592 15.278 0.676
43 33 Mike Bliss Chevrolet TBA 125.469 15.293 0.691