NASCAR Cup Series

DARLINGTON, SC — Denny Hamlin won the Bojangles’ Southern 500 Busch Pole Award Saturday afternoon at Darlington Raceway with a 173.571 mph lap in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, scoring his 29th career pole and his third this season. He has won twice at the 1.366-mile track and is the defending race winner.

KURT BUSCH, No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Fusion – “We worked really hard to qualify ninth.  I just messed up the first time out in round two.  I chose the middle lane in three and four and I should have stayed on the bottom.  That put us in P13, so we went back out and picked up time, so it verified the line that I chose, it’s just that we had an extra outing on our tires for round three.  There’s no way to go for the pole.  There’s no way to try to stretch it, especially with an impound and having an extra lap on the tires, so that’s kind of the cash register of stuff we went through to qualify ninth, so we’ll go from there.”

Kyle Larson was second quick in knockout qualifying at Darlington Raceway today for Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race, Round 25 on the 2018 tour. Larson posted a lap speed of 173.411mph in his No. 42 DC Solar Camaro ZL1 to earn the outside front row starting position on the 1.366-mile track nicknamed ‘The Lady in Black’.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd - ON HIS QUALIFYING SESSION AND WHAT MORE HE NEEDED TO POSSIBLY GET THE POLE: “It was pretty good there every round. The first round I was a little bit on the free side and ran a really good lap. The second round, I felt like my balance was pretty good and fell off a few tenths, but was still good. And then the third round there I was just a little too loose to carry the speed I needed to get the pole. I would have liked to have gotten the pole, but hopefully we can keep our car up front tomorrow and get a good finish for our team and DC Solar.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Throwback Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Your track record is spectacular here. How did you adapt so quickly to this track? “I’m really not sure. I tested here when I was kind of auditioning for a ride at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) in 2003, I think it was. I was at a test here with Tony (Stewart) and really the first slap I killed the wall in Turn 2 and I think we ended up hitting the wall 19 or 20 or maybe even more times during that test – enough to where we didn’t have any sheet metal left on the right side of the car. It had worn completely through."

With only two regular-season races remaining in the season, drivers who have not clinched a spot in the Playoffs, have everything to gain and nothing to lose this Sunday in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Fusion, has had two weeks to enjoy his Bristol win and spot in the Playoffs. He came into the Darlington infield media center before practice today to talk about that and other issues.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1, met with members of the media and discussed his Darlington appearance talking to local reading champions, not running the Indy USAC race, his thoughts on heading into the Playoffs and many other topics. Full Transcript:

Global superstars Florida Georgia Line were already slated to have a huge presence as race namesake and festival headliners at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next weekend. Now, they have also been tapped as the grand marshals of the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line on Sunday, Sept. 9.

Jumping into NASCAR’s official throwback weekend at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, officials from Rick Ware Racing (RWR) announced today they are dialing back their knob to 1990 with their No. 51 JACOB Companies Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Sunday night’s Bojangles Southern 500.