Denny Hamlin was left stunned on pit road after he rallied from a slow practice session and barely transferred into the final round of qualifying to secure his third Busch Light Pole Award of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season for Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday, August 10.
The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, was one of 10 competitors to transfer from two qualifying group rounds to the final round. During the process, Hamlin was the fifth and final competitor to transfer from the Group A qualifying round and was ranked in 11th place during the event’s lone practice session earlier on Saturday. Once in the final round, he posted his best qualifying lap at 118.162 mph in 22.850 seconds, which was enough to claim the top-starting spot over teammate Martin Truex Jr. at his home track.
With the accomplishment, Hamlin, who notched his third Cup Series pole position of the 2024 season, secured his first top-starting spot since Nashville Superspeedway in June, his fourth at Richmond and his 43rd career pole, which keeps him in 13th place on the all-time Cup poles list and leaving him two shy of tying Hall of Famer Buck Baker for 12th place on the list. The pole award was also the sixth of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing and the eighth for the Toyota nameplate.
In addition, Hamlin, a five-time Richmond winner, will attempt to sweep both Richmond Cup events in a season after he won at his home track in April. The last time Hamlin won the fall Richmond event was in September 2016.
“We were the slowest car in the first round [of qualifying],” Hamlin said. “The team made great adjustments. That’s the bottom line to it. [The crew] told me if I backed up my time, we’d have a shot at [the pole]. Certainly, a great job to this whole FedEx Camry team. Certainly, unexpected given the practice and first round qualifying we had.”
Joining Hamlin on the front row will be teammate Martin Truex Jr., a three-time Richmond winner who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 117.822 mph in 22.916 seconds as he is scheduled to make his final Cup start at Richmond on Sunday.
Rookie Josh Berry will start in the top four for the fourth time this season after he qualified in third place. Berry will share the second row with Chase Elliott while Christopher Bell and Austin Dillon, the fastest competitor during the event’s practice session, will line up in the third row. Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick completed the top-10 starting spots while Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch, both of whom were among the remaining 27 competitors to not transfer into the final round of qualifying, will start 11th and 12th, respectively.
Notably, William Byron, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Larson will start 13th through 15th, respectively, while Alex Bowman will start 17th. In addition, rookies Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith will line up in Row 10, Ross Chastain qualified 22nd as he will share Row 11 with teammate Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe qualified 25th and Brad Keselowski will take the green flag in 29th.
Amid the star-studded lineup, Parker Retzlaff, an Xfinity Series regular for Jordan Anderson Racing, will round out the 37-car field in 37th place for his Cup Series debut on Sunday.
All 37 Cup competitors entered for this weekend’s main event made the show.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
- Denny Hamlin, 118.162 mph, 22.850 seconds
- Martin Truex Jr., 117.822 mph, 22.916 seconds
- Josh Berry, 117.601 mph, 22.959 seconds
- Chase Elliott, 118.105 mph, 22.861 seconds
- Christopher Bell, 117.570 mph, 22.965 seconds
- Austin Dillon, 117.770 mph, 22.926 seconds
- Chris Buescher, 117.463 mph, 22.986 seconds
- Bubba Wallace, 117.591 mph, 22.961 seconds
- Joey Logano, 117.096 mph, 23.058 seconds
- Tyler Reddick, 117.488 mph, 22.981 seconds
- Ryan Blaney, 119.095 mph, 22.671 seconds
- Kyle Busch, 118.069 mph, 22.868 seconds
- William Byron, 119.090 mph, 22.672 seconds
- Ty Gibbs, 117.925 mph, 22.896 seconds
- Kyle Larson, 119.016 mph, 22.686 seconds
- Noah Gragson, 117.837 mph, 22.913 seconds
- Alex Bowman, 118.796 mph, 22.728 seconds
- Austin Cindric, 117.801 mph, 22.920 seconds
- Carson Hocevar, 118.723 mph, 22.742 seconds
- Zane Smith, 117.447 mph, 22.989 seconds
- Daniel Suarez, 118.718 mph, 22.743 seconds
- Ross Chastain, 116.929 mph, 23.091 seconds
- Todd Gilliland, 118.582 mph, 22.769 seconds
- Corey LaJoie, 116.893 mph, 23.098 seconds
- Chase Briscoe, 118.385 mph, 22.807 seconds
- Ryan Preece, 116.600 mph, 23.156 seconds
- Erik Jones, 118.214 mph, 22.840 seconds
- Michael McDowell, 115.731 mph, 23.330 seconds
- Brad Keselowski, 117.976 mph, 22.886 seconds
- Ty Dillon, 115.716 mph, 23.333 seconds
- Harrison Burton, 117.596 mph, 22.960 seconds
- Daniel Hemric, 115.577 mph, 23.361 seconds
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 117.524 mph, 22.974 seconds
- Riley Herbst, 115.281 mph, 23.421 seconds
- John Hunter Nemechek, 117.402 mph, 22.998 seconds
- Justin Haley, 115.207 mph, 23.436 seconds
- Parker Retzlaff, 116, 435 mph, 23.189 seconds
