Hamlin's hot streak continues with Cup Series pole in Chicago

Denny Hamlin is on the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series… again.

Hamlin earned his fourth straight pole on an oval at Chicagoland Speedway with a lap of 178.241 mph (30.296 seconds). It held up, giving him the top starting spot for the fourth time in the last six races and the fourth time this season. But it broke the tie with Ryan Newman, moving Hamlin to ninth all-time in the series with 52 pole awards.

“We got very fortunate that the last 12 cars had full sun [over the track],” Hamlin said. “The last few had probably like 90%, but that was, I think, the deciding factor. As we saw right after I went, the track definitely got hotter, and it seemed like the corner speeds of those guys started to slow down. I think if there had been one more car behind Ty Gibbs, they definitely would have beaten me because it went full shade.

“We got fortunate there, but they did a really good job with my car overnight. We worked for a long time with the team trying to figure out what I need to go faster, and execute around here. We did a mock run here yesterday, and that was helpful for me to get a good balance check. But generally, these are great racetracks for us, and typically, I have a really good feel for what I need.”

Kyle Larson qualified second at 178.235 mph (30.297 seconds). Chris Buescher was the third-place qualifier at 178.153 mph.

Brad Keselowski, 178.089 mph, and Ty Gibbs, 178.083 mph, completed the top five qualifiers.

Christopher Bell qualified sixth at 177.643 mph, Chase Briscoe qualified seventh at 177.637 mph, and Bubba Wallace qualified eighth at 177.515 mph. Chase Elliott qualified ninth at 177.491 mph, and William Byron rounded out the top 10 at 177.212 mph.

The most recent winner at Chicagoland, from 2019, is Alex Bowman. He qualified 13th.

Tyler Reddick qualified 13th. Reddick is one point behind Hamlin in the battle for the top seed in the Chase.

Ryan Blaney qualified 14th, Carson Hocevar 15th, Ross Chastain 19th, and Connor Zilisch 21st. Daniel Suarez qualified 26th, Corey Heim qualified 28th, and Shane van Gisbergen qualified 30th. Joey Logano qualified 31st.

Cody Ware brushed the wall on his qualifying attempt and said the car cut off, keeping him from recording a lap. He will start 37th.

Michael McDowell was not permitted by NASCAR to make a qualifying lap, and he will start last in 38th. McDowell’s car failed inspection three times, and he will also incur a pass-through penalty at the start of the race.

NEXT: eero 400 at 6 p.m. ET Sunday.

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