Hamlin claims second Cup pole position of 2024 at Nashville

Denny Hamlin snatched the Busch Light Pole Award for the fourth annual running of the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, June 29.

The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, was one of 10 competitors from a total of 38 entered to compete in the event to transfer into the final round of qualifying for the pole position, with Hamlin transferring from Qualifying Group B. Once in the final round, he clocked in a fast-qualifying lap at 160.354 mph in 29.859 seconds, which was enough to dislodge rookie Josh Berry from the top starting spot as he will lead the field to the green flag for the 19th event on the 2024 schedule this upcoming Sunday.

With his accomplishment, Hamlin, who achieved the pole position by being the 10th and final competitor to run on the track, recorded his 42nd NASCAR Cup Series career pole, his second of the season, his first since Phoenix Raceway in March and his first at Nashville Superspeedway. The pole position also left Hamlin pleased as he attempts to rally from finishing no higher than 24th during his last three starts of this season.

“[I’m] Really happy with this whole FedEx Camry team,” Hamlin said. “They brought a great car today. Glad we were able to capitalize on it. The driver’s not been very good during qualifying session so far this year, but to get a good one today, that [number one] pit stall will help.”

Joining Hamlin on the front row for Sunday’s main event will be rookie Josh Berry, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 159.749 mph in 29.972 seconds as he will start in second place in a Cup event for the second time in 2024. Berry is coming off a strong third-place result during last weekend’s Cup event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. While Berry is still pursuing a ride for the 2025 season, he is also continuing his pursuit to make the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs as he is currently 73 points below the top-16 cutline with eight regular-season events remaining.

Christopher Bell, Hamlin’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing who won at New Hampshire, will line up in third place with his best qualifying lap occurring at 159.849 mph in 29.954 seconds. Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick will start in the top five.

Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher and Austin Cindric, all of whom transferred into the final qualifying round, will start sixth to 10th, respectively, while Austin Dillon and Alex Bowman, the first two competitors to not transfer into the final round, will line up 11th and 12th, respectively.

Notably, Corey Heim, who is piloting a third 23XI Racing entry co-owned by Hamlin and Michael Jordan, will start in 29th place as he will make his third Cup career start. In addition, Justin Haley, who clocked in the 33rd-fastest time at 156.588 mph in 30.577 seconds, will start at the rear of the field and serve a pass-through penalty through pit road during the event’s opening lap due to an unapproved adjustment that was made to his Rick Ware Racing entry during the pre-qualifying inspection process. The penalty also resulted in his car chief JR Norris being ejected for the remainder of the weekend.

Qualifying position, best speed, best time: