DARLINGTON, S.C. — The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin Sunday night with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates sharing the front row for the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Denny Hamlin edged Chase Briscoe to put the No. 11 Toyota on the pole with a lap of 28.694 seconds at 183.479 mph.
“We struggled during practice and I was worried about, well, if we are stuck in this box for the weekend with this setup then we will probably qualify bad, we are not going to get very good stage points – on and on and on, but that is thinking too far ahead,” Hamlin said. “It is about the moment and what I feel like we can do well is, we kind of put things aside and say okay, we will handle that later. Let us figure out what we need to go fast for one lap. What do you need for that?
“So, I focus on that. Give them the information and they make the proper adjustments like they did right there, so it is a big momentum boost for myself personally to know that we are able to get the car where it needs to be, even though it was considerably off in practice.”
It was Hamlin’s second pole of the season and the 46th of his career.
Josh Berry qualified third in the Wood Brothers Racing Ford, with Tyler Reddick fourth in a 23XI Racing Toyota.
Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver Kyle Larson grabbed the fifth spot.
Playoff drivers claimed the top 12 positions with Justin Haley the fastest non-Playoff driver in 13th.
Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon and Austin Cindric filled the top 10.
