Hamlin wins “unexpected” Cup Series pole, his third of 2024 at Richmond

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: