Denny Hamlin breezed to his 40th career pole award on Saturday afternoon at Watkins Glen Int’l Speedway, setting a fast lap of 70.392 seconds (125.298 mph) at the 2.35-mile road course.
The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green during Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen, which is set to begin at 3 p.m. (ET) on Sunday. Hamlin will be hunting his second win of the season and the 51st win of his career.
“I’m putting a lot of work in for sure to get better at (road courses). I think the first step to getting better is you have to find a way to run fast for a lap and then you’ve got to figure out how to make it repetitive,” Hamlin said. “So, I think this is part of the process that I talked about earlier in the year about getting better.
“We’re seeing progression on getting faster at road courses which is good. Then, it’s just up to me to do it for multiple laps.”
Joining him on the front row will be Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, who turned a 70.582-second lap (124.961 mph) during qualifying. Byron leads the series with four wins this season in his No. 24 Chevrolet.
Last week’s winner Michael McDowell qualified third in his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford with a 70.589-second lap (124.959 mph). JGR’s Ty Gibbs and Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson completed the top five.
A.J. Allmendinger, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch qualified sixth through ninth.
Corey LaJoie, who qualified 10th, will start inside the top 10 for only the second time in his Cup Series career.