{"id":58778,"date":"2026-05-30T17:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T22:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=58778"},"modified":"2026-05-31T20:39:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:39:49","slug":"hamlin-to-start-from-pole-position-after-cup-series-qualifying-canceled-at-nashville-superspeedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/30\/hamlin-to-start-from-pole-position-after-cup-series-qualifying-canceled-at-nashville-superspeedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamlin to start from pole position after Cup Series qualifying canceled at Nashville Superspeedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em> <\/p>\n

LEBANON, Tenn. \u2013 Intermittent light rain showers forced the cancellation of Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light Pole Qualifying at Nashville Superspeedway, resulting in Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin starting from pole position in Sunday night\u2019s Cracker Barrel 400 (7 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

LEBANON, TENNESSEE – MAY 30: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Progressive Insurance Toyota, looks on during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on May 30, 2026 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Championship points leader Tyler Reddick will start his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota alongside Hamlin\u2019s No. 11 JGR Toyota on the front row as Toyota hopes to earn its first ever series win at the 1.33-mile concrete oval.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s Charlotte race winner Daniel Suarez will start third in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet with JGR\u2019s Christopher Bell (No. 20 Toyota) and reigning two-time series champion, Hendrick Motorsports Kyle Larson (No. 5 Chevrolet) rounding out the top five on the 38-car grid.<\/p>\n

Defending race winner, Team Penske\u2019s Ryan Blaney will start his No. 12 Ford seventh.<\/p>\n

Bell, who was fastest in the practice session, said he didn\u2019t expect the cancelled time trials to make a big difference in either the run of the 400-miler or ultimately the outcome of the race. Especially with the field getting some time on track with practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s good for me today, because I have a good metric, so I\u2019m okay with that,\u2019 Bell said smiling of the formulation NASCAR used to set the field in lieu of qualifying. <\/p>\n

His competitors were not overly concerned with the cancellation of qualifying, either \u2013 instead just glad to turn some laps and dial in their cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey put a lot of resin down in both corners, more than they\u2019ve done in the past and we\u2019re really curious how the cars are going to drive,\u2019\u2019 said Roush Fenway Keselowski owner-driver Brad Keselowski. \u201cSo it\u2019s semi-important [to qualify] although we\u2019ve been racing here for the last three or four years, so we all have a pretty good feel for it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Interview: Pole Position for NASCAR Cup Series Race – Driver, Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota)<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service  LEBANON, Tenn. \u2013 Intermittent light rain showers forced the cancellation of Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light Pole Qualifying at Nashville Superspeedway, resulting in Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin starting from pole position in Sunday night\u2019s Cracker Barrel 400 (7 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":58761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,1097],"class_list":["post-58778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-nashville-superspeedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2278971299-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fi2","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58778"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58781,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58778\/revisions\/58781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}