Michigan International Speedway<\/a>, where Denny Hamlin delivered a clutch performance to claim the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday\u2019s FireKeepers Casino 400.<\/p>\n\u2013by Mark Cipolloni\u2013<\/p>\n
The 45-year-old veteran wheeled the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a blistering lap of 195.117 mph, edging out Michigan native Carson Hocevar by a razor-thin 0.018 seconds and denying the young Spire Motorsports driver a storybook front-row start on his home track.<\/p>\n
Hamlin\u2019s milestone 50th career Cup Series pole came under dramatic circumstances. Just an hour earlier in practice, his Toyota suffered a tire issue that sidelined him for much of the session while his crew worked feverishly on repairs. Despite the setback, Hamlin rolled out in the final round and found the perfect balance, calling the lap \u201cthe limit for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
After climbing from his car, Hamlin walked straight over to a visibly disappointed Hocevar on pit road. The two shared a quick conversation and a hug, with Hamlin holding up a nearly-touching thumb and forefinger while joking about how \u201cbad\u201d he felt for spoiling the local hero\u2019s moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did a great job accounting for the damage on the bottom side,\u201d Hamlin said of his crew. \u201cThey rebalanced it, but it was a handful\u2014all I wanted, certainly. That was surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hocevar, who earlier led the most laps in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race before finishing third, couldn\u2019t hide his emotions but stayed optimistic about race day.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I would have loved to have that there,\u201d Hocevar said, \u201cbut third in the truck race and second in Cup qualifying\u2014hopefully that\u2019s a trend there. I feel like it\u2019s a really good race car, one of the best I\u2019ve had here. So I hope it translates tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strong Toyota Showing Across the Board<\/p>\n
Reigning championship leader Tyler Reddick (No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota), who had topped practice, qualified third. Hamlin\u2019s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top five, giving Toyota four of the top-five starting spots.<\/p>\n
Chase Elliott led the Chevrolet contingent in sixth, while Chris Buescher was the top Ford in 14th. Notably, the last driver to win the Michigan Cup race from pole was Joey Logano in 2019; Logano will start 18th on Sunday.<\/p>\n
With Hamlin starting from the point and a fast Toyota contingent locked in upfront, Sunday\u2019s FireKeepers Casino 400 promises high-stakes action on one of NASCAR\u2019s fastest and most competitive tracks.<\/p>\n
NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying \u2013 FireKeepers Casino 400<\/p>\n
Pos
\nNo.
\nDriver
\nTeam
\nTime
\nSpeed<\/p>\n
1
\n11
\nDenny Hamlin
\nNational Debt Relief Toyota
\n36.901
\n195.117<\/p>\n
2
\n77
\nCarson Hocevar
\nZeigler Auto Group Chevrolet
\n36.919
\n195.022<\/p>\n
3
\n45
\nTyler Reddick
\nROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK Toyota
\n36.929
\n194.969<\/p>\n
4
\n54
\nTy Gibbs
\nMonster Energy Toyota
\n36.953
\n194.842<\/p>\n
5
\n19
\nChase Briscoe
\nBass Pro Shops Toyota
\n36.956
\n194.826<\/p>\n
6
\n9
\nChase Elliott
\nNAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet
\n36.958
\n194.816<\/p>\n
7
\n5
\nKyle Larson
\nHendrickCars.com Chevrolet
\n36.967
\n194.768<\/p>\n
8
\n20
\nChristopher Bell
\nRheem Toyota
\n37.003
\n194.579<\/p>\n
9
\n24
\nWilliam Byron
\nAxalta Solar Boost Chevrolet
\n37.038
\n194.395<\/p>\n
10
\n43
\nErik Jones
\nDollar Tree Toyota
\n37.090
\n194.122<\/p>\n
11
\n7
\nDaniel Suarez
\nNationsGuard Chevrolet
\n37.121
\n193.960<\/p>\n
12
\n35
\nRiley Herbst
\nMonster Energy Zero Sugar Toyota
\n37.127
\n193.929<\/p>\n
13
\n23
\nBubba Wallace
\nColumbia Toyota
\n37.133
\n193.898<\/p>\n
14
\n17
\nChris Buescher
\nKroger\/Oscar Mayer\/The Rustik Oven Ford
\n37.186
\n193.621<\/p>\n
15
\n41
\nCole Custer
\nAir Lift Chevrolet
\n37.205
\n193.522<\/p>\n
16
\n38
\nZane Smith
\nAaron\u2019s Rent To Own Ford
\n37.213
\n193.481<\/p>\n
17
\n42
\nJohn Hunter Nemechek
\nPye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota
\n37.240
\n193.340<\/p>\n
18
\n22
\nJoey Logano
\nAutotrader Ford
\n37.257
\n193.252<\/p>\n
19
\n12
\nRyan Blaney
\nMenards\/Richmond Water Heaters Ford
\n37.258
\n193.247<\/p>\n
20
\n71
\nMichael McDowell
\nGarner Trucking Chevrolet
\n37.277
\n193.149<\/p>\n
21
\n3
\nAustin Dillon
\nDow Mobility Services Chevrolet
\n37.277
\n193.149<\/p>\n
22
\n4
\nNoah Gragson
\nRibbiot Ford
\n37.341
\n192.818<\/p>\n
23
\n47
\nRicky Stenhouse Jr.
\nPylon Aviation Chevrolet
\n37.342
\n192.812<\/p>\n
24
\n10
\nTy Dillon
\nPatriot Mobile Chevrolet
\n37.408
\n192.472<\/p>\n
25
\n16
\nAJ Allmendinger
\nGrizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet
\n37.457
\n192.220<\/p>\n
26
\n6
\nBrad Keselowski
\nSolomon Plumbing Ford
\n37.476
\n192.123<\/p>\n
27
\n60
\nRyan Preece
\nBuildSubmarines.com Ford
\n37.551
\n191.739<\/p>\n
28
\n33
\nAustin Hill(i)
\nRebel Bourbon Chevrolet
\n37.553
\n191.729<\/p>\n
29
\n48
\nAlex Bowman
\nAlly Chevrolet
\n37.561
\n191.688<\/p>\n
30
\n97
\nShane Van Gisbergen
\nSafetyCulture Chevrolet
\n37.562
\n191.683<\/p>\n
31
\n2
\nAustin Cindric
\nDiscount Tire Ford
\n37.667
\n191.149<\/p>\n
32
\n1
\nRoss Chastain
\nBusch Light Chevrolet
\n37.690
\n191.032<\/p>\n
33
\n51
\nCody Ware
\nSuper.com Chevrolet
\n37.715
\n190.905<\/p>\n
34
\n88
\nConnor Zilisch #
\nWeatherTech Chevrolet
\n37.720
\n190.880<\/p>\n
35
\n34
\nTodd Gilliland
\nLove\u2019s Travel Stops Ford
\n37.730
\n190.830<\/p>\n
36
\n44
\nJJ Yeley(i)
\nFanatics Casino Chevrolet
\n38.570
\n186.674<\/p>\n
37
\n21
\nJosh Berry
\nMotorcraft\/Quick Lane Ford
\n0.000
\n0.000<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
DENNY HAMLIN,\u00a0No. 11 National Debt Relief Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing<\/p>\n
Can you talk about what it means to you to earn your 50th career pole?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it feels good. It was certainly a little unexpected, considering the adversity we had during practice and knowing that my car wasn\u2019t going to be quite optimized to where we expected it to be. Over the last few weeks with the rain outs, I thought that it was kind of taking away opportunities for us to get to the 50. I knew that the next one was that milestone. Glad we were able to get it done and certainly, get that number one pit stall and just kind of see where things go. We\u2019re going to have to come from the back tomorrow and that\u2019s going to be a challenge in itself. Certainly, this racetrack with the long green flag runs that you get. We\u2019re going to have to have good restarts and we\u2019re going to have to have the race play out just right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did you ever think you would be in position to tie Ryan Newman with a number of poles?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I mean, took me probably more starts to do it? (laughter) A little bit longer career there, so that certainly is an advantage, I think, a longer career. I\u2019m not really sure, but, no, not really. I mean, he was the king of qualifying for such a long time. So, I didn\u2019t know that he\u2019s kind of next up on the list and certainly would be awesome to just keep it going. At least lets me know I can get some one lap speed out of the car anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
How did the flat tire effect the underbody?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I was just trying to see how much we drug off. I\u2019m trying to eyeball it. They got much better instruments to be able to tell, but I could visually see that mine had drug in spots that \u2013 everyone kind of drags, when you go in practice, you drag a little bit, but then I saw that mine was significant compared to cars that hadn\u2019t had a flat, so I knew that that was not good. I basically shrug my shoulders to say, there\u2019s nothing we can do about it. It\u2019s screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you feel like you can work your way through the field?<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, yes and no. I mean, if the cautions can fall at the right times, yes, as long as I get decent restarts, yes, but again, we\u2019re going to have to get lucky in a few spots, I think. The race is long and you can certainly do it. It\u2019s not unachievable, but also sometimes when you\u2019re in the back, it gives you an opportunity to do, if there\u2019s an early caution to do a different strategy to get up there later on. If anything, I was just trying to get a decent pit stall for tomorrow and I was very surprised when it was good enough, especially it was much lifting as I felt like I had during that qualifying session. It ain\u2019t going to be easy. I know, if you look at last week, that all seemed easy, but things really fell our way, and they\u2019re going to have to again this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can you take us back to your first career win at Pocono?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of my memories come from rewatching the highlights. There are moments I do remember coming through the field. I remember the shock of when I went into the tunnel turn and spun out, blew that left rear. Back then, I\u2019m kind of ignorant to know, well, what does that do to the car? I just kept driving it to its same capability. Truthfully back then when you had that kind of damage, it was actually a decent thing, for performance. It allowed me to really just be fast and I just remember, the biggest thing I remember is coming back through the pack so quickly that everyone would just pull over when I got near them, thinking about how different the racing is today, like it certainly would have been impossible today. It was such a great day and certainly felt like it was a big confidence boost and then we went back there, back then, we went back to that track like five, six weeks later or something like that and were able to dominate. It just gave me a ton of confidence every time I go into Pocono just because of that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you have to be patient or more aggressive tomorrow with your situation?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDepends on the situation, and it also depends on how the race is playing out. So I think I go into it being patient because I don\u2019t know what future cautions might fall that might help us, and then I didn\u2019t need to be aggressive and put myself in bad spots to start. So, I\u2019ll definitely start on the patient side, and then depending on how the race falls, where I\u2019m at, at a certain time, then I might ramp up the aggression from there on, but I think patience is the right way to start this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the point situation you are in, does that give you more time to be patient or does it not matter with your task is?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it matters because it certainly is going to make it hard for us to get any first stage points. The guys that we were that are first and third are inside the top 10. I think that we\u2019ll probably lose some there, but if you can somehow figure out a way to win the race, you get that jump back. So, I\u2019m playing to win the race. I certainly don\u2019t think that we\u2019re going to play this thing to try to go get stage points or we feel good enough that if we get our car optimized, get the back of the car fixed back where it was. We\u2019ll be good enough to win the race on merit and, if we lose out on stage points, then we got unlucky and we caused a tire to go flat. So that\u2019s on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Were you surprised that you got the pole with the damage?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTruthfully was very surprised. I had a little mini lift and turn three and four coming to the green. That affects everything from start-finish line all the way to turn two and three. I tried to run up the racetrack, tried to get a little more momentum, but I felt right from the beginning that our car did not have quite the grip that it had in practice, but the conditions were as good for me that it possibly was for anyone else. I had the coolest racetrack. I was surprised to see the time on the dash when I crossed the line. I thought I was shooting for \u2013 I thought that was probably like a P 8 to P10 executed lap on my part. The car had a decent enough speed chunk in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
What has made you so good in qualifying over the last few years?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at so much information, figuring out, when Chase (Briscoe) got the pole last year, I think we were second or third, just looking at the little things that he did a little bit better than I did in qualifying. So just always looking at that stuff to try to gain hundredth here and there, and that\u2019s usually the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are restarts something that is eating at you? Do you feel like that is the weakness on your team right now?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe obvious answer is yes. That\u2019s where I feel, generally, where there\u2019s the most to be gained, where I think that we\u2019re the most vulnerable. If I can get that in a better spot by the time we get to the Chase, then I\u2019m certainly going to feel better about things because the racetracks, the way they play out in the last 10, I mean, these things can come out to shootouts, and you can\u2019t spit up five spots on, on a late race restart and give up those points. So especially when the 45 (Tyler Reddick) and Ryan (Blaney), those guys, that\u2019s what their strengths are. So, I can\u2019t afford to have that be such a weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you feel like you have to really knock out some solid finishes the next two weeks with back-to-back road courses coming up?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I mean, this is the tracks that we need to win races and make hay at. We\u2019re going to go into San Diego and Sonoma, and it\u2019s like, give me 15th, I won\u2019t run the race. Just award that now, I won\u2019t go. I think that\u2019s just the reality. I\u2019m just far too old to spend a lot of time working on that to get better at this point in my career. It\u2019s better if I just focus my resources on winning at the tracks that I am strong at and just understand that those four to five races we are just going to be average, but if we can make it up, by winning tracks like this, on a regular occasion, it\u2019s still a good path to a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard they\u2019ve added more corner workers. Is that a good thing?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich is good because, I mean, this track is massive in size, right? It\u2019s got so many different corners and twists, and certainly, you\u2019re going to think that this thing\u2019s going to have walls on both sides because things can get hidden pretty easily. Corners can get disguised and you end up missing a car sitting there. It\u2019s good that they\u2019re putting more resources to that because we certainly need it on the road courses.\u201d<\/p>\n
What does it mean to join the 50 win, 50 pole club?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s awesome. I mean, I don\u2019t know, those are legends and then there\u2019s me (laughter).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After posting the fastest lap in Saturday\u2019s qualifying session at Michigan International Speedway and securing the 50th Busch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-720577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}