By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
It was a friendly golf wager made good on the race track. Denny Hamlin began marking his 500th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race start this weekend with a record pole-winning speed Saturday afternoon at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.
And Hamlin earned his – and Toyota’s – second pole of the season by a mere .003-seconds over the very guy he made that all-in-fun wager with – Kyle Larson.
“I got him, I got him,’’ Hamlin said smiling after qualifying for Sunday’s Drydene 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “I’m so happy I beat him. To have that lap there was a really good lap for us. I knew when we ran it, it was really solid.’’
Extremely solid. Hamlin’s lap of 166.984 mph (21.559-seconds) in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was more than a second faster than the previous Dover qualifying record (165.960 mph/21.692-seconds) set by Chase Elliott in May. Hamlin, Larson and third place qualifier Martin Truex Jr. all broke the track record Saturday afternoon.
It is Hamlin’s fourth pole at the Dover one-miler – the most at any one-mile track for him. The last time Hamlin won a pole position was at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in August – and he went on to win the race. Hamlin has never won at Dover, but was runner-up to Elliott in this race last year – one of four Top-5 runs at the track.
“This is probably as optimistic as I’ve ever been going into a Dover race simply because we’ve really devoted a lot of time to improving my technique around here,’’ said Hamlin, adding, “It just seems like in practice I’m really comfortable in the car and that’s not my usual MO here.’’
This is the first of three races that make up Round 2 in the Monster Energy Cup Series Playoffs. And all 12 of the drivers still championship-eligible qualified among the Top-18.
Just behind Hamlin, Larson and Truex are fellow Playoff drivers Kevin Harvick, defending race winner Elliott and first-time Playoff competitor William Byron in positions four-five-six on the starting grid.
Ryan Blaney (10th), Alex Bowman (12th), Joey Logano (14th) are the next best Playoff drivers in the starting lineup. Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer and points leader Kyle Busch will start 16th-17th and 18th, respectively.
Larson smiled on pit road acknowledging how close he came to swiping the top qualifying position in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. He remained optimistic that the near-miss was still a positive outcome in the big picture. Dover has been one of his best tracks, statistically-speaking. He has eight Top-10 finishes in 11 starts – including a pair of runner-up finishes in 2016 and 2017. He was third at Dover in May.
Coincidentally, the only other time this season Larson started a race on the outside of Row 1 was at Bristol in August – again, right alongside Hamlin.
“I felt like I ran a good lap,’’ Larson said. “Three-hundredths of a second when you’re going that fast isn’t much.’’
His expectations for the race? “A lot of fun,’’ Larson said.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – 50th Annual Drydene 400
Dover International Speedway
Dover, Delaware
Saturday, October 5, 2019
1. (11) Denny Hamlin (P) @, Toyota, 166.984 mph.
2. (42) Kyle Larson (P) @, Chevrolet, 166.960 mph.
3. (19) Martin Truex Jr. (P) @, Toyota, 166.205 mph.
4. (4) Kevin Harvick (P) @, Ford, 165.998 mph.
5. (9) Chase Elliott (P) @, Chevrolet, 165.937 mph.
6. (24) William Byron (P) @, Chevrolet, 165.738 mph.
7. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 165.670 mph.
8. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 165.616 mph.
9. (1) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 165.388 mph.
10. (12) Ryan Blaney (P) @, Ford, 165.282 mph.
11. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 165.274 mph.
12. (88) Alex Bowman (P) @, Chevrolet, 164.850 mph.
13. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 164.699 mph.
14. (22) Joey Logano (P) @, Ford, 164.692 mph.
15. (41) Daniel Suarez, Ford, 164.639 mph.
16. (2) Brad Keselowski (P) @, Ford, 164.406 mph.
17. (14) Clint Bowyer (P) @, Ford, 164.376 mph.
18. (18) Kyle Busch (P) @, Toyota, 164.144 mph.
19. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 163.823 mph.
20. (95) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 163.808 mph.
21. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 163.406 mph.
22. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 162.984 mph.
23. (36) Matt Tifft #, Ford, 162.800 mph.
24. (6) Ryan Newman, Ford, 162.697 mph.
25. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 162.660 mph.
26. (43) Bubba Wallace, Chevrolet, 162.624 mph.
27. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 162.374 mph.
28. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 161.958 mph.
29. (32) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 161.290 mph.
30. (00) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 161.254 mph.
31. (8) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 160.980 mph.
32. (47) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, 160.707 mph.
33. (51) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 158.444 mph.
34. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 157.384 mph.
35. (52) JJ Yeley(i), Ford, 156.365 mph.
36. (27) Joe Nemechek(i), Chevrolet, 156.108 mph.
37. (54) Garrett Smithley(i), Ford, 154.288 mph.
38. (77) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 154.116 mph.
