{"id":59527,"date":"2026-07-04T16:05:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T21:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=59527"},"modified":"2026-07-05T10:41:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T15:41:06","slug":"denny-hamlin-wins-pole-position-in-return-to-chicagoland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/denny-hamlin-wins-pole-position-in-return-to-chicagoland\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin wins pole position in return to Chicagoland"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service <\/em><\/p>\n

JOLIET, Ill. \u2014 When it comes to oval tracks, Denny Hamlin has established himself firmly on the throne as king of qualifying.<\/p>\n

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JOLIET, ILLINOIS – JULY 04: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Progressive Insurance Toyota, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 04, 2026 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

In Saturday\u2019s time trials at Chicagoland Speedway, Hamlin edged Kyle Larson by 0.001 seconds to claim the pole position for Sunday\u2019s eero 400 (6 p.m. ET on TNT, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Hamlin sped around the 1.5-mile intermediate track in 30.296 seconds (178.241 mph). Larson, who ran later in the qualifying order, fell just short at 178.235 mph.<\/p>\n

The Busch Light Pole Award was Hamlin\u2019s fourth of the season, his first at Chicagoland (which hasn\u2019t hosted a NASCAR national series race since 2019) and the 52nd of his career, breaking a tie with Ryan Newman for ninth all-time.<\/p>\n

Hamlin, the 2015 Chicagoland winner, won poles at the previous two oval tracks on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway. He is the only driver to win poles at both Chicagoland Speedway and the Chicago Street Course (2023).<\/p>\n

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JOLIET, ILLINOIS – JULY 04: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Progressive Insurance Toyota, signs the Busch Light Pole Award backdrop after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 04, 2026 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the Chicago master\u2014what can I say?\u201d Hamlin quipped.<\/p>\n

In fact, Hamlin considered himself lucky to win his third straight oval-track pole, having gotten the benefit of favorable cloud conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to continue to underplay it, but we got very fortunate,\u201d said Hamlin, who leads the series standings by one point over Tyler Reddick. \u201cThe last 12 cars had full sun\u2014100 percent sun. The last few had 90 percent, but I think that was the deciding factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw that, right after I went, the track definitely got hotter, and it seemed like the corner speeds of those guys started to slow down. I think if there was one more car behind Ty Gibbs (the final qualifier), they definitely would have beaten us, because it went full shade.<\/p>\n

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JOLIET, ILLINOIS – JULY 04: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, enters his car during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 04, 2026 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe got fortunate there, but they (Hamlin\u2019s No. 11 team) did a a real good job overnight with my car (whose balance wasn\u2019t ideal during Friday\u2019s practice).\u201d<\/p>\n

Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford drivers Chris Buescher (178.153 mph) and Brad Keselowski (178.089 mph) qualified third and fourth, respectively. With two victories at Chicagoland, Keselowski is the only driver in the field for Sunday\u2019s race with multiple wins at the track.<\/p>\n

Hamlin\u2019s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe claimed the respective fifth through seventh starting positions. Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott and William Byron completed the top 10, which consisted of four JGR Toyotas, three Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets, two RFK Fords and one 23XI Racing Toyota (Wallace).<\/p>\n

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JOLIET, ILLINOIS – JULY 04: Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, enters his car during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 04, 2026 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The No. 2 and top remaining seed in the NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge, Hamlin faces Erik Jones in Sunday\u2019s second round. Jones qualified 22nd.<\/p>\n

In battles between teammates, Larson faces Byron, and Gibbs takes on Briscoe.<\/p>\n

Hamlin, however, will have his eye on Larson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my personal opinion, Kyle Larson is the best driver at this race track, so he\u2019s going to be someone I have to contend with, and I\u2019m sure all the Hendrick cars are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael McDowell\u2019s No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet failed inspection three times and must start from the rear of the field under penalty. McDowell will have to serve a pass-through on the opening lap.<\/p>\n

Interview: Pole Winner – Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) –<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  JOLIET, Ill. \u2014 When it comes to oval tracks, Denny Hamlin has established himself firmly on the throne as king of qualifying. In Saturday\u2019s time trials at Chicagoland Speedway, Hamlin edged Kyle Larson by 0.001 seconds to claim the pole position for Sunday\u2019s eero 400 (6 p.m. ET on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":59541,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[488,41,16],"class_list":["post-59527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-chicagoland-speedway","tag-denny-hamlin","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2284660895-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1749&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fu7","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59527","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=59527"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59551,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59527\/revisions\/59551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}