Denny Hamlin Dominates Qualifying at World Wide Technology Raceway
MADISON, Ill. – Denny Hamlin maintained his perfect streak in qualifying during the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, securing the pole position on Saturday at the World Wide Technology Raceway. This is the 46th pole position of his career and the third of the season for the Joe Gibbs Racing star, who also led the standings in last week’s playoff race at Darlington Raceway.Kyle Larson will start second alongside Hamlin, achieving his first top-ten 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, as the playoff drivers occupied the top nine starting positions for Sunday’s 300-mile race at the track known as Gateway. This represented a notable difference from how the playoffs began in Darlington. Only four championship-eligible drivers finished in the top 10 in the Southern 500, a historic low for a playoff race. Among the disappointments was Larson, whose 19th place finish at Darlington continued a five-race drought without a top five.We made some excellent adjustments from where we were in practice. That’s what they did so well last week for the qualifying. Now we have a great track position and we just have to maintain it, and we’ll be in good shape.
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 last place 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 start at Gateway. It’s been a tough and inconsistent couple of months, so even qualifying well feels really good.
Kyle Larson
