Denny Hamlin cashed in on the Busch Light Pole Award for the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, October 3.
The event’s starting lineup was determined through an on-track qualifying session that consisted of a single-car, single-lap qualifying format. During the session, each of the 36 competitors vying for 36 starting spots cycled around Las Vegas once to post the fastest lap amongst one another. The competitor who posted the single fastest lap was awarded the pole position.
During the session, Hamlin, who was the third-fastest in practice earlier on Saturday, clocked in a lap of 186.787 mph in 28.910 seconds during his single-lap session. Hamlin’s lap was enough for the three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, to notch his first Cup pole position in three months.
With the pole, Hamlin notched his 53rd career pole position in the NASCAR Cup Series division, his fifth of the 2026 season and his second at Las Vegas, the latter of which have occurred in the fall Vegas event in back-to-back seasons. Hamlin has also won the previous two Cup events at Vegas as he strives to notch his third consecutive victory in Sin City at the conclusion of Sunday’s main event.
Hamlin, who is ranked in the runner-up spot in the 2026 Chase standings, trails Kyle Larson by 26 points as he strives to utilize the pace and balance acquired and managed throughout practice and qualifying towards the main event and reel in his points deficit to Larson and contend for his first Cup Series championship.
“[The car] was good,” Hamlin said. “It had a lot of really good characteristics of cars I’ve had here in the past and I thought we improved on that slightly this time around. All the deficiencies that we did have. I feel like it’s pretty good and obviously, we’ve got a long way to go, but that’s a great start. [Kyle Larson and his team]’re on a heck of a run right now. It seemed like all of us Gibbs guys kind of nailed our balance there. 23XI [Racing] as well. That’s what really mattered with the track being so hot today. Balance was more of a factor than it had been in qualifying in quite some time. We did a really good job predicting that and we’ll fix it overnight and see what we got.”
Hamlin led a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the top-four starting spots for Sunday’s event at Las Vegas. Ty Gibbs, qualified in second place with a lap of 186.677 mph in 28.927 seconds and he will start alongside Hamlin on the front row. Christopher Bell qualified in third place with a lap of 186.220 mph in 28.998 seconds. Chase Briscoe rounded out the Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the top-four starting spots by notching the fourth-place starting spot with a lap of 186.136 mph in 29.011 seconds.
Tyler Reddick was the fastest non-Joe Gibbs Racing qualifier as he will start in fifth place. Kyle Larson, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Kansas Speedway and the current Chase leader in the standings, will start in sixth place with a lap of 185.861 mph in 29.054 seconds. Larson is sporting a throwback yellow, blue and red 2007 throwback scheme to his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry that pays tribute to the late two-time Cup Series champion, Kyle Busch.
Austin Cindric, William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Carson Hocevar completed the top-10 starting grid. With 10 of 16 Chase contenders occupying the top-10 starting spots, the remaining Chasers that include Daniel Suarez, Ryan Preece, Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano will start 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 20th and 23rd, respectively.
Notably, Josh Berry and Noah Gragson were the lone two competitors who did not post a qualifying lap due to both wrecking their respective primary entries during practice.
With 36 competitors vying for 36 starting spots, all made the main event.
Las Vegas – Qualifying Position, Best Speed, Best Time:
- Denny Hamlin, 186.787 mph, 28.910 seconds
- Ty Gibbs, 186.677 mph, 28.927 seconds
- Christopher Bell, 186.220 mph, 28.998 seconds
- Chase Briscoe, 186.136 mph, 29.011 seconds
- Tyler Reddick, 186.111 mph, 29.015 seconds
- Kyle Larson, 185.861 mph, 29.054 seconds
- Austin Cindric, 185.287 mph, 29.144 seconds
- William Byron, 185.230 mph, 29.153 seconds
- Bubba Wallace, 185.077 mph, 29.177 seconds
- Carson Hocevar, 185.027 mph, 29.185 seconds
- Daniel Suarez, 184.862 mph, 29.211 seconds
- Ryan Preece, 184.433 mph, 29.279 seconds
- Chase Elliott, 184.426 mph, 29.280 seconds
- Chris Buescher, 184.049 mph, 29.340 seconds
- Alex Bowman, 183.924 mph, 29.360 seconds
- Brad Keselowski, 183.755 mph, 29.387 seconds
- Ross Chastain, 183.755 mph, 29.387 seconds
- Michael McDowell, 183.755 mph, 29.387 seconds
- AJ Allmendinger, 183.511 mph, 29.426 seconds
- Ryan Blaney, 183.480 mph, 29.431 seconds
- Erik Jones, 183.187 mph, 29.478 seconds
- Riley Herbst, 183.125 mph, 29.488 seconds
- Joey Logano, 183.113 mph, 29.490 seconds
- Cole Custer, 182.599 mph, 29.573 seconds
- Shane van Gisbergen, 182.519 mph, 29.586 seconds
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 181.971 mph, 29.675 seconds
- Todd Gilliland, 181.849 mph, 29.695 seconds
- Austin Dillon, 181.720 mph, 29.716 seconds
- Ty Dillon, 181.372 mph, 29.773 seconds
- Zane Smith, 181.281 mph, 29.788 seconds
- Connor Zilisch, 180.632 mph, 29.895 seocnds
- John Hunter Nemechek, 180.349 mph, 29.942 seconds
- Austin Hill, 179.671 mph, 30.055 seconds
- Cody Ware, 178.459 mph, 30.259 seconds
- Josh Berry, 0.000 mph, 0.000 seconds
- Noah Gragson, 0.000 mph, 0.000 seconds
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
The 2026 South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is scheduled to occur on Sunday, October 4, at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
