Hamlin takes Darlington pole

Denny Hamlin led a Joe Gibbs Racing front row sweep at Darlington Raceway in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying Saturday morning.

Hamlin, a three-time Southern 500 winner, earned the pole with a lap of 171.381 mph (28.694 seconds). It is the second pole for Hamlin at Darlington as well as his second of the season. Sunday night will be the 45th time Hamlin has led the field to the green flag in his career, and the 40th time he’s done so in a Toyota.

“We struggled with the balance all during race practice, so we made some good adjustments there to go one lap, and I felt like it was really good,” Hamlin said. “The Sports Clips Toyota did everything I needed it to do, and it’s awesome to come here and get a pole.”

Hamlin won the spring race at Darlington.

Chase Briscoe qualified second at 171.255 mph. Briscoe is the defending winner at Darlington.

Josh Berry qualified third at 170.578 mph, Tyler Reddick qualified fourth at 170.466 mph, and Kyle Larson qualified fifth at 170.012 mph. Ross Chastain qualified sixth at 169.965 mph and Christopher Bell qualified seventh at 169.795 mph.

Bubba Wallace, the fastest playoff driver in practice, qualified eighth at 169.660 mph. Austin Dillon qualified ninth at 169.549 mph, and Austin Cindric completed the top 10 at 169.438 mph.

The fastest 12 drivers in Cup Series qualifying were playoff drivers. Those outside the top 12 were Joey Logano, who qualified 14th, Shane van Gisbergen in 20th, Chase Elliott in 21st, and the lowest-qualifying playoff driver in 29th for Alex Bowman.

Other notables in the field were Justin Haley qualifying 13th, Chris Buescher qualifying 15th, Kyle Busch qualifying 23rd, and Michael McDowell qualifying 25th. Haley was the second fastest overall in practice Saturday morning to McDowell. Busch finished second in the Southern 500 a year ago.

Brad Keselowski qualified 32nd.

There are 39 teams entered at Darlington Raceway.

NEXT: Southern 500 at 6 p.m. ET Sunday.

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