Denny Hamlin qualified on the pole for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/NASCAR via Getty Images
Welcome back, Denny Hamlin.
After nine miserable weeks where mediocrity was the high point and race-ending wrecks were all too commonplace, Denny Hamlin reemerged from the doldrums to win the Coors Light Pole for Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
With a lap at 128.969 mph (14.878 seconds), Hamlin edged Kurt Busch (128.770 mph) for the top starting spot in Friday’s time trials for the 24th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season.
The pole was Hamlin’s first at the .533-mile short track, his fourth of the season and the 16th of his Cup career.
Carl Edwards qualified third at 128.692 mph, followed by Brian Vickers (just .001 seconds behind Edwards at 128.684 mph). Matt Kenseth (128.580 mph) and last Sunday’s Michigan winner, Joey Logano (128.520), earned the third-row starting spots.
Three of Hamlin’s poles have come after a four-race absence because of a compression fracture of his first lumbar vertebra, sustained at Fontana, CA, in March. Friday’s effort comes on the heels of a nine-race stretch in which Hamlin has finished no better than 18th.
“It’s our worst run of nine races in my career,” Hamlin said. “A lot of it is our own doing. We got off track for a couple of races because we were blowing right front tires in consecutive weeks. We started chasing our setups and didn’t find anything that was very good with that.
“That burned another three or four weeks. … But we’re headed in the right direction. We’ve got something we can build on. It’s a pole at a short track, which is no big deal for a lot of teams, but like I said, at any moment we can go from that 25th-place car on a weekly basis to winning the pole and winning the race.”
Driving conservatively on his first lap, Busch nailed down his seventh front-row starting position of the season (one pole and six second-place starts) in a car that had been hastily repaired after the No. 78 Chevrolet brushed the wall during the second practice session.
“I said I’ve got to go 95 percent—I can’t go 100 percent on that first lap, just to feel the car and trust the car,” Busch said. “On the second lap, once I made it through the first lap, I said, ‘All right, let’s go 100 percent,’ and then I’m back all over the place again.”
The qualifying session was an unwelcome adventure for Kurt’s brother Kyle Busch, who paced final practice earlier in the afternoon. Busch’s Toyota got into the marbles at the top of the track on his first lap, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver stopped short of the finish line and reversed direction.
Busch drove back to turn 1 and resumed his first lap, completing it in 93 seconds, to gain momentum for a second attempt. But after he crossed the start/finish line to start the second circuit, Busch spun in turn 2 and tagged the outside wall with the right rear of the No. 18 Camry.
As time trials progressed, Busch’s crew was busy repairing sheet metal damage to the right rear quarter and rear panel. Jimmy Makar, JGR’s vice president of racing operations, said the plan was to repair the primary car, but Busch will have to start at the rear of the field with the slowest time on the board after the mishap.
Series leader Jimmie Johnson got loose in turn 3 coming to the green, reversed his field and then completed two laps, but his effort was good enough only for 13th on the grid. Aside from Kasey Kahne, who will start seventh, the news was even worse for Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., seventh in the Cup standings, qualified 19th. Jeff Gordon, 14th in points and scrambling for a spot in the Chase, lost momentum on his first lap and posted the 32nd fastest time, forcing the four-time champion to come from deep in the field if he hopes to gain ground on the drivers ahead of him in the standings.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, TN
IRWIN Tools Night Race Qualifying – August 23, 2013
1. 11 Denny Hamlin 14.878 128.969
2. 78 Kurt Busch 14.901 128.770
3. 99 Carl Edwards 14.910 128.692
4. 55 Brian Vickers 14.911 128.684
5. 20 Matt Kenseth 14.923 128.580
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7. 5 Kasey Kahne 14.950 128.348
8. 39 Ryan Newman 14.963 128.236
9. 56 Martin Truex Jr. 14.972 128.159
10. 43 Aric Almirola 14.975 128.134
11. 14 Mark Martin 15.008 127.852
12. 2 Brad Keselowski 15.021 127.741
13. 48 Jimmie Johnson 15.030 127.665
14. 9 Marcos Ambrose 15.035 127.622
15. 29 Kevin Harvick 15.039 127.588
16. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya 15.044 127.546
17. 34 David Ragan 15.046 127.529
18. 51 Ryan Truex 15.062 127.393
19. 88 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 15.103 127.048
20. 1 Jamie McMurray 15.131 126.813
21. 27 Paul Menard 15.134 126.787
22. 10 Danica Patrick 15.158 126.587
23. 47 Bobby Labonte 15.159 126.578
24. 15 Clint Bowyer 15.169 126.495
25. 38 David Gilliland 15.172 126.470
26. 98 Michael McDowell 15.185 126.362
27. 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 15.195 126.278
28. 35 Josh Wise 15.199 126.245
29. 16 Greg Biffle 15.205 126.195
30. 13 Casey Mears 15.253 125.798
31. 83 David Reutimann 15.258 125.757
32. 24 Jeff Gordon 15.259 125.749
33. 40 Landon Cassill 15.309 125.338
34. 36 J.J. Yeley 15.346 125.036
35. 32 Ken Schrader 15.349 125.011
36. 7 Dave Blaney 15.351 124.995
37. 87 Joe Nemechek Owner Points
38. 30 David Stremme Owner Points
39. 93 Travis Kvapil Owner Points
40. 33 Tony Raines Owner Points
41. 31 Jeff Burton Owner Points
42. 95 Scott Speed Owner Points
43. 18 Kyle Busch Owner Points
Did Not Qualify: Mike Bliss
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