RICHMOND, Va. — Of the 10 cars that advanced out of Round 1 of NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, Denny Hamlin had the slowest time.
That didn’t deter him in Round 2.
Going out first, Hamlin threw down the quickest time of the session at 22.850 seconds (118.162 mph) to score the pole for Sunday night’s race at the 0.75-mile short track. It’s his third pole of the season and his fourth at Richmond – a mere 20 miles up the road from where he grew up in Chesterfield.
“(Chris Gabehart, crew chief) told me I needed to back up – to win the pole – I needed to back up my lap. We did, and it did,” Hamlin said. “We know historically it always does fall off, but I felt like I did as good as I could on the lap. There was no kind of regrets with it, with what I could do different. I feel like we made some really good adjustments between the two rounds, and I was able to execute the lap I was trying to execute.
“Was I surprised it held up? Yes. I definitely was. When I ran it, that was the most that I could get out of the car. There wasn’t anything left, but as cars go – and those guys ran much faster than us and had less laps on the tires – when they didn’t beat us, it certainly gave us a little bit of hope going into that last round.”
Martin Truex Jr. will start second while Josh Berry, who led Round 1 Group B, will start third.
“We had a really good lap in the first round,” Berry said. “I felt like I had a good lap in the second round, but just needed a little bit more there. I’m pretty happy with how that went and we’ll see what tomorrow brings us.
“We realize this is a great opportunity for us. We ran great here in the spring. We didn’t execute like we needed to on pit road and kind of took ourselves out of the race, but I think we have a car that can compete with these guys. We have the starting spot.”
Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell complete the top five.
Austin Dillon, who paced the 45-minute practice session earlier in the evening, starts sixth. Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick – the fastest driver in Round 1 Group A – round out the top 10.
Of note, points leader Kyle Larson will start 15th. He had the eighth-fastest time in Group B and started his jet toward defending the Knoxville Nationals early.
Trackhouse Racing drivers Daniel Suárez and Ross Chastain start 21st and 22nd, respectively. Brad Keselowski starts 29th.
Sunday’s race is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET on USA Network. Buescher is the defending winner, while Hamlin won in the spring.
This story will be updated.