Hamlin denies Hocevar Cup Series pole at Michigan

Denny Hamlin will defend his NASCAR Cup Series victory at Michigan International Speedway from the pole position Sunday afternoon.

Hamlin was the final driver to make a qualifying attempt and went to the top of the board at 195.117 mph (36.901 seconds). It is the second consecutive week Hamlin starts from the pole after doing so at Nashville Superspeedway when qualifying was rained out. It is his 50th career pole.

“They did a great job accounting for the damage on the bottom side [of the car],” said Hamlin of his flat tire in practice. “They rebalanced it; felt like we did a good job. It was a handful. It was all I wanted, certainly. But hats off to this whole National Debt Relief Toyota team. Yeah, that was surprising.”

The pole award for Hamlin broke the heart of Michigan native Carson Hocevar. Hocevar will start second after a lap of 195.022 mph.

Tyler Reddick qualified third after being the fastest in practice. Reddick’s lap was 194.969 mph.

Ty Gibbs qualified fourth at 194.842 mph, and Chase Briscoe completed the top five qualifiers at 194.826 mph. Chase Elliott qualified sixth at 194.816 mph, Kyle Larson qualified seventh at 194.768 mph, and Christopher Bell qualified eighth at 194.579 mph.

William Byron qualified ninth at 194.385 mph, and Erik Jones rounded out the top 10 at 194.122 mph.

“It’s a testament to these guys, they do a really good job, and they’re building fast race cars,” Hocevar said. “I would have loved to have that there, but third in the truck race, second in Cup qualifying, so hopefully that’s just a trend there. But I would love to have had that one.”

Daniel Suarez qualified 11th, Bubba Wallace qualified 13th, and Chris Buescher qualified 14th. Joey Logano qualified 18th, Ryan Blaney qualified 19th, and Michael McDowell qualified 20th. Austin Dillon qualified 21st.

Brad Keselowski will come from the 26th qualifying position, while Ryan Preece qualified 27th, Austin Hill qualified 28th, Alex Bowman qualified 29th, and Shane van Gisbergen qualified 30th. Ross Chastain qualified 32nd.

One driver did not record a qualifying time. Josh Berry spun coming off Turn 4 and will start last in 37th position.

NEXT: The Firekeepers Casino 400 at 3 p.m. ET Sunday.

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