NASCAR News: Hamlin Grabs Pole for Pocono Cup race

Perhaps not too surprisingly, Pocono (Pa.) Raceway’s all-time winningest driver, Denny Hamlin (pictured) was fastest in the field Saturday to earn pole position for Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400.

Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota will take the green flag to start the NASCAR Cup Series race and historically-speaking, no one has led the field to more checkered flags; his seven wins at Pocono are most in history. And he’s finished first or second in five of the last eight races on the 2.5-mile unique three-turn track.

Hamlin’s lap of 172.599 mph was 0.083-second faster than Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher in the No. 17 Ford. Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar (Chevrolet), Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek (Toyota) and Haas Factory Team’s Cole Custer (Ford) rounded out the top-five in qualifying.

It marks a big return for the season’s three-time race winner Hamlin who is back on the grid after receiving a waiver from NASCAR, missing last weekend’s inaugural race in Mexico City to be home for the birth of his son.

“We typically can step up from practice,” said Hamlin, who was not even among the top-10 fastest drivers in the afternoon’s practice session. “We had good adjustments so never really panicked too much

“And obviously because I was a little more rested than the rest of the field right there, I was able to show a little more speed,” he added with a smile and nod to missing last week’s race.

“Every week we have a good shot to win and this team just knows what I need out of the car. The cars and tires have changed over time, but you still make speed at this track the same way. I was able to execute there in qualifying and that’s a good start for us.”

Of note, the current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron crashed his No. 24 Chevrolet late in the qualifying session. The team had to roll out a back-up car for Sunday’s race so Byron will start from the rear of the field.

Hamlin’s JGR teammates, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs will start sixth and seventh and Tyler Reddick, who drives the 23XI Racing Toyota co-owned by Hamlin was eighth fastest. JRG’s Christopher Bell will line up ninth on the grid and Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez will roll off 10th. Six of the top-10 cars were Toyotas.

Defending race winner, Ryan Blaney was 20th quickest in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford.

Four drivers did not make qualifying runs, including Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace, whose team rolled his car off the line just before his run. Wood Brothers’ Josh Berry, Rick Ware Racing’s Cody Ware and NY Racing’s Brennan Poole also did not make qualifying laps.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

You are picking up where you left off at Michigan. How do you keep your focus with everything that has gone on within the last couple of weeks?

Hamlin: “Truthfully, I’m on a run. I don’t know how else to say it. Everything is going really well right now. You know inevitably it’s not going to keep going forever, but right now it is.”

Have you found out something about Pocono here recently that you didn’t previously?

Hamlin: “I remember when they repaved I felt like I lost the advantage. When the track was worn out, there were things I could do in turn one and turn three, but I wasn’t able to do it as well. When they repaved, it made grip everywhere and made everyone run the same line. As this track has aged, we’ve started to move around again and there are little nuances and advantages to be had. I do feel like it’s starting to get back to that?”

How did you feel about the car in race trim during practice?

Hamlin: “Not great, truthfully. I was very surprised about the big balance change. I ran as fast as I could in practice and I think we were 26th or something like that. What was encouraging was we ran our fastest lap on Lap 16, so we had some capability to it. We knew we could make it better in the short run, you can’t run your fastest lap on Lap 16. There was improvement to be had and told them what I needed and I obviously I know how to drive around the track and they gave me exactly what I asked for.”

The two fastest cars in practice had issues in qualifying and are both starting in the back. What does it mean to have two of the potentially strongest cars starting at the rear?

Hamlin: “There will be some opportunities to do some strategy stuff to get track position. Nothing is free and usually comes at a cost of where you have to run on older tires at some point so you. It won’t be at an advantage. It makes it hard, this track is similar to Indy to pass. They are going to have to be really patient and it’s going to take awhile. They will likely miss out on some stage points. It’s the way the breaks go sometimes. We feel like we are in a good spot, I feel like I just need to execute restarts and don’t mess up on pit road and do my job and we should be fine.”

With Bubba 13th in points and potentially losing out on stage points, what does this do for them as they think about getting into the playoffs?

Hamlin: “I don’t think you can get to panicked about it, you can’t change it. If you are Bubba Wallace it’s not something you did. I’m confident it’s not something the team did, it’s just one of those mechanical things where the anvil fell on your this time. It happens to others as well. It’s very easy for drivers and teams to get down about their bad luck, but everyone has it and usually washes itself out over time. I think they are running fast enough to be a playoff car and a lot of that is going to depend on who jumps up on the wild card races over the next 10 weeks, but I feel confident the 23 team will be a part of it.”

How is your confidence level heading into the weekend with the pole?

Hamlin: “If you would have asked me an hour ago, I probably wasn’t going to be very confident. I thought with how off the balance was in practice I just wanted to get a top-10 qualifying effort. If I can do that and make some adjustments overnight, then I’m back in the game. If I had a poor qualifying effort, that was just going to make the balance worse and that’s just going to be how it was going to be no matter how good your car is. I thought the task to get another win was going to need to be starting in the top-15. But now that we are first, we need to make sure we execute well and max that balance in race trim and we should be fine.”

All four JGR Toyotas and Tyler Reddick were in the top-10 in qualifying but none of you were in the top-10 in practice. What was the difference from practice to qualifying?

Hamlin: “Good question, we all missed it with our simulation this week. We all work around the same thing and then when we show up, they were able to work around me when they saw my balance was off. We were able to make some adjustments for that group B practice but it wasn’t quite enough. They needed more time, which was the time between practice and qualifying to get it where they needed it to be. I’m confident it’s going to be better now.”

Even with all the success you’ve had at Pocono, how do you make sure you keep doing all the things to continue to be successful here?

Hamlin: “I study every track like I’ve never won there, that’s just the way I’ve always done things and it’s the way that I feel like has allowed me to adapt to so many different cars and things. When the track changes are the same you got to be able to adapt. I treat Pocono like I’ve never won here. I will go out there and study other drivers who have not even won at this track. If there’s someone that I’ve noticed who is fast, I look at it. For example, with William Byron I looked at his corner entry and how (Kyle) Larson’s corner exit and I try to put all of that together to improve myself.”

NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VISITPA.COM

1. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 172.599 mph.
2. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 172.325 mph.
3. (77) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 171.825 mph.
4. (42) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 171.789 mph.
5. (41) Cole Custer, Ford, 171.638 mph.
6. (19) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 171.612 mph.
7. (54) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 171.546 mph.
8. (45) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 171.429 mph.
9. (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 171.347 mph.
10. (99) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 171.002 mph.
11. (43) Erik Jones, Toyota, 170.999 mph.
12. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 170.866 mph.
13. (60) Ryan Preece, Ford, 170.691 mph.
14. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 170.516 mph.
15. (38) Zane Smith, Ford, 170.445 mph.
16. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 170.419 mph.
17. (4) Noah Gragson, Ford, 170.413 mph.
18. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 170.390 mph.
19. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 170.338 mph.
20. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 170.335 mph.
21. (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 170.258 mph.
22. (7) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 170.046 mph.
23. (88) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 169.933 mph.
24. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 169.920 mph.
25. (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 169.882 mph.
26. (8) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 169.507 mph.
27. (10) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 169.469 mph.
28. (71) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 169.364 mph.
29. (35) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 169.303 mph.
30. (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 167.720 mph.
31. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 156.128 mph.
32. (34) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 152.076 mph.
33. (16) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 140.456 mph.
34. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
35. (21) Josh Berry, Ford, 0.000 mph.
36. (51) Cody Ware, Ford, 0.000 mph.
37. (44) Brennan Poole(i), Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.