Hamlin on Nashville pole after another qualifying rainout

Denny Hamlin will lead the field to the green flag Sunday night at Nashville Superspeedway after rain washed out NASCAR Cup Series qualifying for the second straight week.

Hamlin is on the pole via the performance metric.

“I really, really want to win here pretty badly,” Hamlin said. “So much I can tell that certain weekends, people ask all the time, ‘Do you ever get nervous?’ Not anymore, I’ve done it way too many times to get nervous. But on certain weekends where I really want to win, I start getting a little nervous pre-practice, but I’m thinking about things like, did I get my car right this week? There are certain trends that I look at that might concern me. I end up getting caught up in the things sometimes I can’t control, worrying about the outcomes instead of the actual process.

“This is one of them, it’s a track where I only have so many chances to get a win here and I’ve been so close over the last few years. I love the racetrack and feel like it’s been a very raceable track over the years and since they’ve worked the resin in. I’m a little bit nervous going into the weekend.”

Tyler Reddick, the championship points leader, will share the front row with his team co-owner. Daniel Suarez will start third, fresh off his Coca-Cola 600 victory a week ago. Christopher Bell will start fourth, and Kyle Larson completes the top five.

Ty Gibbs will start sixth, Ryan Blaney will start seventh, William Byron will start eighth, and Joey Logano will start ninth. Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the top 10 on the starting grid.

The defending race winner at Nashville is Blaney. Team Penske has won the last two races at Nashville with Blaney in 2025 and Logano in ’24.

Brad Keselowski will start 12th, Michael McDowell will start 14th, Carson Hocevar will start 17th, and Bubba Wallace will start 18th. Alex Bowman will come from the 19th starting position, Chris Buescher from the 22nd position, and Corey Heim from the 24th starting position. Austin Hill will start in the 25th position.

Chase Elliott will start 29th, Chase Briscoe will start 31st, and Ross Chastain will start 35th. Connor Zilisch will start last, in 38th position.

NASCAR scheduled a 45-minute Cup Series practice after canceling qualifying. It will be their only track time before the race.

There are 38 teams entered at Nashville Superspeedway.