MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Denny Hamlin continued his present-day mastery of Martinsville Speedway on Saturday by securing the provisional Busch Pole Award during qualifying for the First Data 500.
Hamlin toured the .526-mile paper clip in 19.354 seconds (97.840 mph) to garner his 33rd career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole, third of the season and fourth at Martinsville.
The Chesterfield, Va., native will seek his sixth Ridgeway grandfather clock trophy – and first since 2015 – on Sunday afternoon with the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry.
“I did an OK job (as a driver), but this FedEx Camry has been good all weekend,” Hamlin noted. “It was pretty fast in practice. The feel hasn’t always been great, and we didn’t expect to run that fast … but I drove it to its capability and that was all we had. To have the pole here is great, obviously, in a lot of ways.
“I look forward to 500 more laps of this on Sunday, and hopefully punching our ticket to Homestead.”
The official lineup will be confirmed following pre-race technical inspection on Sunday morning. One failure will cause a driver’s qualifying time to be disallowed, while two or more will lead to additional penalties.
Chase Elliott would have joined Hamlin on the front row after a lap of 19.383 seconds (97.694 mph) with the No. 9 Mountain Dew Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, but will have to drop to the rear of the field due to an engine change following the opening practice session on Saturday morning.
Martin Truex Jr. qualified third, followed by Aric Almirola, who will move up to the outside of the front row after timing in fourth fastest. Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell completed the top five.
Ryan Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez and Joey Logano were the balance of the top 10.
Kevin Harvick will start lowest among the eight remaining playoff drivers after qualifying 22nd.
The First Data 500 is scheduled for a 3 p.m. start on Sunday afternoon, with live coverage on NBCSN, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
Provisional starting lineup for the First Data 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway:
- Denny Hamlin
- Chase Elliott
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Aric Almirola
- Michael McDowell
- Ryan Blaney
- Clint Bowyer
- Erik Jones
- Daniel Suarez
- Joey Logano
- William Byron
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Kyle Busch
- Kyle Larson
- Brad Keselowski
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- David Ragan
- Daniel Hemric
- Alex Bowman
- Chris Buescher
- Ryan Preece
- Kevin Harvick
- Austin Dillon
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kurt Busch
- Bubba Wallace
- Ryan Newman
- Corey LaJoie
- Ty Dillon
- Paul Menard
- Matt Crafton
- Landon Cassill
- BJ McLeod
- Reed Sorenson
- JJ Yeley
- Ross Chastain
- Timmy Hill
- Garrett Smithley