Denny Hamlin Dominates Qualifying at World Wide Technology Raceway
In a demonstration of absolute dominance, Denny Hamlin secured the pole position in Saturday’s qualifying at World Wide Technology Raceway, marking his perfect performance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. This is Hamlin’s 46th pole in his career and the third of the season for the Joe Gibbs Racing star, who also led the qualifying in last week’s opening race at Darlington Raceway.Hamlin achieved a lap at 139.190 mph aboard his No. 11 Toyota. Kyle Larson will start in second place alongside Hamlin, achieving his first top-10 result in qualifying at the 1.25-mile oval east of St. Louis. Chase Briscoe qualified third, followed by Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, and Austin Cindric. The playoff drivers occupied the top nine starting positions for Sunday’s 300-mile race at the track known as Gateway. This contrasts with the start of the playoffs at Darlington, where only four championship-eligible drivers finished in the top 10 in the Southern 500, a historic low for a playoff opening race. Among the disappointments, Larson, whose 19th-place finish at Darlington continued a streak of five races without a top-five finish.“We made big adjustments from where we were in practice. That’s what they did so well last week for qualifying. Now we have a great track position and we just have to maintain it, and we’ll be in good shape,” Hamlin commented.
Denny Hamlin
Alex Bowman, who hasn’t finished above 13th at Gateway, qualified 25th as the only playoff driver to start outside the top 20. Bowman is tied with Josh Berry (who qualified 12th) for the last position in the points standings among the 16 playoff drivers.“I think our team needs it more than anything. We haven’t been able to celebrate much, so we’ll definitely celebrate a front-row starting spot at Gateway. It’s been a tough and inconsistent couple of months, so even qualifying well feels really good,” Larson said.
Kyle Larson
