{"id":42868,"date":"2023-06-10T19:05:47","date_gmt":"2023-06-11T00:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=42868"},"modified":"2023-06-12T12:43:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T17:43:01","slug":"denny-hamlin-charges-to-pole-position-for-nascar-cup-race-at-sonoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/10\/denny-hamlin-charges-to-pole-position-for-nascar-cup-race-at-sonoma\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin charges to pole position for NASCAR Cup race at Sonoma"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

SONOMA, Calif. \u2013 Denny Hamlin made the most of a second lap in the final round of Saturday\u2019s qualifying to edge Tyler Reddick for the pole position for Sunday\u2019s Toyota\/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota \/ Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 10, 2023 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Running the fastest lap of the day, Hamlin toured the 1.99-mile road course in 77.719 seconds (92.178 mph) to earn his second Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his first at Sonoma and the 38th of his career.<\/p>\n

Reddick had covered the distance in 77.812 seconds (92.068 mph) before Hamlin knocked him off the provisional pole late in the session. <\/p>\n

Michael McDowell, who posted the fastest lap in Round 1, qualified third at 92.060 mph, followed by Christopher Bell (91.308 mph) and road course ace AJ Allmendinger (91.873 mph). Sunoco rookie Ty Gibbs was sixth fastest, and Chris Buescher, the 2022 Sonoma runner-up, was seventh.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, crew chief Chris Gabehart suggested to Hamlin that he settle for his first lap in the final round. At the time, Hamlin was second fastest.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris was trying to get me to unbuckle after our first lap in the final round,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cHe was like, \u2018That\u2019s a great day, that\u2019s a good starting spot,\u2019 and I just asked like \u2018You don\u2019t want me to try again\u2014I feel like maybe I could do it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so I\u2019m glad that we did try again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota \/ Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 10, 2023 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Logan Riely\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Seeking his first career Cup Series pole, McDowell was frustrated with his third-place result, which matched his finishing position in last year\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we had the car to beat today, so that\u2019s what stinks about qualifying third,\u201d McDowell said. \u201cI feel good about our race trim. The cars I outqualified there I felt like we were way better in race trim. The only one I felt that was better than us was maybe the 5 (Kyle Larson), so we\u2019ve got a good car for (Sunday) and we\u2019ll get after it. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to be disappointed with third. I haven\u2019t had a career pole here in the Cup Series, so I was hoping today would be it. I gave it all I had and just a little bit too much and over-stepped it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The surprise of the session was Larson, who failed to advance to the second round after topping the speed chart in final NASCAR Cup Series practice by .558 seconds over Martin Truex Jr., who claimed the eighth starting position for Sunday\u2019s race, the 16th of the season.<\/p>\n

Larson had started from the pole for the last five Sonoma races, winning once, in 2021. Earlier in the day, he won the pole for Saturday night\u2019s NASCAR Xfinity Series race.<\/p>\n

Chase Elliott, returning from a one-race suspension for wrecking Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, made one attempt during Saturday\u2019s final round but slid sideways in Turn 4 before regaining control.<\/p>\n

The bobble cost Elliott precious time and dropped him to 10th on the grid next to defending race winner Daniel Suarez, who qualified ninth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. \u2013 Denny Hamlin made the most of a second lap in the final round of Saturday\u2019s qualifying to edge Tyler Reddick for the pole position for Sunday\u2019s Toyota\/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Running the fastest lap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":42837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[41,16,455],"class_list":["post-42868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-denny-hamlin","tag-nascar","tag-sonoma-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/GettyImages-1497509091-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-b9q","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42869,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42868\/revisions\/42869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}