Denny Hamlin Scores First Ever Pole At Monster Mile
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[/media-credit]At a track that has been admittedly been monstrous in the past to him, Denny Hamlin pulled off the fastest qualifying lap of his Monster Mile career, scoring his first ever pole at Dover International Speedway.
Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota grabbed the pole with a fast lap of 22.599 seconds at a speed of 159.299 mph. This is Hamlin’s third pole of the season but his first ever at Dover in 14 races at the Monster Mile.
“That was an amazing run,” Hamlin said. “Definitely wasn’t what I expected, but it sure feels good to get a pole here.”
“Our car was really strong in race trim and really wasn’t all that good in qualifying trim,” Hamlin continued. “Hopefully this is a good sign of things that will give us a strong run here on Sunday.”
“Starting from the pole will help us in tuning our car throughout the day,” Hamlin said. “Obviously track position is going to be very, very crucial and we’ve got to do everything we can to keep that.”
“We’ve got a car that’s very capable of staying in the front and hopefully we’ll have a shot to win.”
Hamlin humbly credited his crew chief Darian Grubb for his pole winning qualifying effort.
“I think there’s a lot of drivers out there that could be able to do what I do with the cars that Darian has been giving me the last few weeks,” Hamlin said. “I’m going to give him pretty much all the credit and ride his back as long as it will hold me.”
The second and third qualifying positions belonged to Michael Waltrip Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex, Jr.
“It was good,” Bowyer, driver of the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota, said. “When you’re that close, it’s disappointing because you know just if you could have put the gas down that much more anywhere around the race track, you’d of had the pole.”
“I will save that for another day.”
Bowyer posted his 12th top-10 start of 2012 and his fifth in 14 races at the Monster Mile.
“It’s a good day for us,” Martin Truex, Jr., driver of the No. 56 NAPA Toyota, said. “It’s been a good weekend so far.”
“The NAPA Toyota was about perfect,” Martin Truex Jr. continued. “Had to lift off turn four and gave it to him.”
“The car was awesome.”
This was Truex’s sixth top-10 start at Dover International Speedway and his 13th in 29 races this season.
Sam Hornish, Jr. sat on the pole briefly but was relegated to a fourth place qualifying run in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger.
“The lap was OK,” Hornish said. “From inside the car, I thought that we put together a pretty solid lap.”
“Our race runs yesterday didn’t have the speed that we needed, so I’m really happy that I qualified well.”
Kyle Busch, in the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, rounded out the top-five in qualifying at Dover. Busch had his hands full, with the car wiggling during the lap.
“I really don’t know what I did wrong,” Busch said. “It stepped out and I just had to catch it and wait and go after it the second lap.”
“Just glad we were able to have a strong second lap.”
While the qualifying lap may have been a bit squirrelly, Busch said he might just have the car to beat on race day.
“I think we’ve definitely got a top-three car right now,” Busch said. “I think we’re one of those in the top elite.”
Ten of the twelve Chase drivers qualified in the top-13 positions during the time trials, with Hamlin in first, Bowyer second, Truex Jr. third, Greg Biffle sixth, Jeff Gordon seventh, Kasey Kahne in ninth, Brad Keselowski in tenth, Jimmie Johnson in eleventh, Matt Kenseth in twelfth and Kevin Harvick in thirteenth.
Chase drivers Tony Stewart qualified 24th and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. qualified 25th.
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., making his first Cup start in the No. 6 Cargill Ford, qualified 17th and Danica Patrick, in the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, qualified 38th.
Hamlin captures the AAA 400 pole at Dover
[media-credit name=”Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”217″]
[/media-credit]Denny Hamlin captured the pole for Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway with a lap of 159.299 mph.
“That was an amazing run. Definitely wasn’t what I expected, but it sure feels good to get a pole here. Our car was really strong in race trim and really wasn’t all that good in qualifying trim. Hopefully, this is a good sign of things that will give us a strong run here on Sunday.” Hamlin said.
Hamlin, who has an average finish of 20.5, hopes have a better finish on Sunday with the top starting spot.
“For me to qualify on a pole that doesn’t reward my style and obviously having a car as strong as it is. It’s a good thing that Darian (Grubb, crew chief) is as good as he is at setting up race cars. I just think that we have things rolling right now and we just are taking it one week at a time.” Hamlin said.
Clint Bowyer qualified second with a lap of 159.264 mph.
“It was good. It’s just a little bit too loose, kind of knew that. You knew what you were fixing to be up against when you were watching everybody run. It looked like everybody was skating around on the top of the race track. We (Martin Truex Jr.) were both kind of talking and I was too loose in (turns) one and two, but because of that the car turns really good and you’re almost on the bottom too much in (turns) three and four and then you get over there three-quarters of the way around and the thing will get tight and lose the nose on you.” Bowyer said.
Martin Truex Jr. third, Sam Hornish Jr. fourth and Kyle Busch qualified fifth.
“The Shell/Pennzoil Dodge was really good. The guys have worked hard to give me a fast car. Our race runs yesterday didn’t have the speed that we needed, so I’m really happy that I qualified well.” Hornish Jr. said.
Chase drivers Greg Biffle qualified sixth, Jeff Gordon seventh, Kasey Kahne ninth, Brad Keselowski 10th, Jimmie Johnson 11th, Matt Kenseth 12th, Kevin Harvick 13th, Tony Stewart 24th and Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts 25th.
“We were not very good in practice. I don’t know what to expect. We struggled all weekend really. We just haven’t had real good speed.” Earnhardt Jr. said.
