Denny Hamlin Dominates Qualifying at World Wide Technology Raceway
MADISON, Ill. – Denny Hamlin continues 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 star driver of Joe Gibbs Racing, who also led the standings in last week’s playoff race at Darlington Raceway.Kyle Larson qualified in second place alongside Hamlin, achieving his first top-ten result in qualifying at the 1.25-mile oval east of St. Louis.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.
Denny Hamlin
- Chase Briscoe qualified third.
- Ross Chastain.
- Ryan Blaney.
- William Byron.
- Tyler Reddick.
- Christopher Bell.
- Austin Cindric.
These playoff drivers took the top nine starting positions for Sunday’s 300-mile race at the track known as Gateway.
This marked a notable difference from the start of the playoffs at Darlington, where only four championship-eligible drivers finished in the top ten in the Southern 500, a historic low for a playoff opener. Among the disappointments was Larson, whose 19th place at Darlington extended a five-race drought without a top-five finish.Alex Bowman, who hasn’t finished above 13th place at Gateway, qualified in 25th place, being the only playoff driver to start outside the top 20. Bowman is tied with Josh Berry (who qualified in 12th place) for last place in the 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
