Denny Hamlin scored the Coors Light Pole award after qualifying for pole position for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt/NASCAR via Getty Images
Denny Hamlin led a Joe Gibb Racing sweep of the top three positions on his way to capturing the pole with a record-breaking run in Friday’s qualifying sessions for Saturday night’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Hamlin turned a lap of 14.602 seconds (131.407 mph) in the third and final session to knock his teammate Kyle Busch of the top spot and lock up his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season. Hamlin’s record-setting lap easily eclipsed the previous mark of 131.362 mph set by Kevin Harvick at this same race just one year ago.
Kyle Busch held on for the second spot, earning his best start since taking the pole at Pocono three weeks ago. Carl Edwards grabbed the third qualifying spot, giving JGR a sweep of the top three for the second week in a row. David Ragan and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.
Hamlin’s pole-winning effort was the 22nd of his career and third in 20 starts at Bristol, where he has one career victory – winning the this same event in 2012.
“It looks like I really got the car working the way I needed to there in that final practice. A testament to these guys and what Dave Rogers (crew chief) did for us,” said Hamlin. “Our FedEx Ground Camry obviously was very fast that last round and Dave made the great adjustments to it to pick up the speed and I think that hopefully we’ll have something that we can race with them tomorrow night.”
Kyle Busch rolled into Friday’s qualifying session after setting the time to beat in the final practice session. Busch then led the opening round of qualifying and finished second behind his brother Kurt in the second round, but didn’t quite have enough to beat out Hamlin for the pole.
“It’s a JGR top-three there,” said Busch. “Great effort for everyone on this Skittles Camry, these guys are doing a great job. I couldn’t be more pleased with just everybody’s effort.
“We were just a little too free there in the second segment and the first run of the third segment. It’s a little edgy up there so you try not to push too hard, but still make a good lap and come back safely. Then there at the end we tried a ‘Hail Mary’ and it worked, it picked us up speed, but it didn’t pick us up that last spot.”
Ragan’s fourth-place starting spot will be his fourth top-five start of the season, and it couldn’t came at a better time after finding out he’ll be looking for a new ride next year with the announcement that Michael Waltrip Racing will be folding at the end of the season.
Ragan, who has driven for three teams this season – including nine races filling in the injured Kyle Busch – is hoping to race his way to just his second top-five finish of the year.
“We’re pretty happy with that starting spot, but I’ll always wonder if we didn’t have to run so many laps that second round if we would’ve had a shot at the pole,” said Ragan, who ran a total of 12 laps in the three rounds of qualifying. “I really thought we had a shot at the pole and just didn’t have enough speed that second round. I thought we had enough speed to advance to the third round pretty easy and we had to run a few extra laps and I think those extra three or four laps on our tires probably cost us a shot at the pole.”
Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson made of the rest of the top ten qualifiers.
Missing the race were Travis Kvapil, Jeb Burton and Reed Sorenson.
Five-time Bristol winner Jeff Gordon, starting in his 46th and final race at the half-mile oval, will roll off 24th driving a retro “Rainbow Warriors” DuPont paint scheme on his no. 24 Chevrolet. The track recently honored Gordon by naming a section of seats on the backstretch the “Jeff Gordon Terrace.”
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, TN
IRWIN Tools Night Race – August 21, 2015
Friday’s Qualifying Results
1. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 131.407 mph.
2. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 131.263 mph.
3. (19) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 130.655 mph.
4. (55) David Ragan, Toyota, 130.460 mph.
5. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 130.344 mph.
6. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 130.327 mph.
7. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 130.300 mph.
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9. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 130.053 mph.
10. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 129.947 mph.
11. (41) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 129.447 mph.
12. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 128.848 mph.
13. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 129.675 mph.
14. (51) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 129.351 mph.
15. (21) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 129.212 mph.
16. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 129.151 mph.
17. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 128.822 mph.
18. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 128.701 mph.
19. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 128.606 mph.
20. (88) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 128.537 mph.
21. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 128.262 mph.
22. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 128.193 mph.
23. (78) Martin Truex, Jr, Chevrolet, 128.159 mph.
24. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 127.988 mph.
25. (47) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 128.563 mph.
26. (9) Sam Hornish, Jr., Ford, 128.253 mph.
27. (34) Brett Moffitt #, Ford, 128.176 mph.
28. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 127.920 mph.
29. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 127.801 mph.
30. (95) Michael McDowell, Ford, 127.605 mph.
31. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 127.563 mph.
32. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 127.537 mph.
33. (35) Cole Whitt, Ford, 127.461 mph.
34. (32) Josh Wise, Ford, 127.368 mph.
35. (46) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 127.241 mph.
36. (7) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 127.208 mph.
37. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, Owner Points
38. (23) J.J. Yeley(i), Toyota, Owner Points
39. (40) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, Owner Points
40. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, Owner Points
41. (98) Timmy Hill(i), Ford, Owner Points
42. (83) Matt DiBenedetto #, Toyota, Owner Points
43. (33) Mike Bliss(i), Chevrolet, Owner Points
Did Not Qualify
44. (30) Travis Kvapil(i), Chevrolet, 126.545 mph.
45. (26) Jeb Burton #, Toyota, 125.906 mph.
46. (62) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 125.150 mph.
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