Denny Hamlin poses with the Coors Light Pole Award after qualifying for pole position for the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway. [Credit: Matt Sullivan/NASCAR via Getty Images]
By Joe Jennings
Despite oppressive heat at the Richmond International Raceway late Friday afternoon, Denny Hamlin wasn’t deterred as he raced away with the pole for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400, the 26th and final regular season event of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. The Virginia driver shot around the .75-mile track at a speed of 122.344 miles per hour in earning his first pole of the season and the third at Richmond, plus he earned his 24th consecutive top-10 starting position in 2016.
The pole winner drove the FedEx Ground Toyota.
“It was a good run for us. I thought, for sure, we had too many laps on our tires. A lot of guys that we were challenging had only one run per session on their tires. My car didn’t really come in that quick,” the pole winner said. “I had to run multiple laps and on a short track, it wears out tires and I thought we were at a huge disadvantage. I am really proud of the effort this team made and proud of the changes made during each run. Running that many laps tells us we have a pretty good car, and we will see if we can get a win tomorrow.”
Michigan winner Kyle Larson pushed his Target Chevrolet hard enough to earn the other front-row starting position. His speed was 122.288 mph.
Said the Californian, “I was hoping for a good qualifying effort but I didn’t know if we would be as good as we were in practice. Thankfully, our Chevrolet had good speed in qualifying and I had good three rounds and getting second was nice. To get a front row starting spot was good, as Richmond has not been one of my better tracks.”
Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray qualified for row two with Kurt Busch and Darlington winner Martin Truex Jr. copping row three honors.
Rounding out the top-10 were Kasey Kahne, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson.
Jeff Gordon timed 11th.
Ryan Newman, who is outside the top-16 Chase drivers in points qualified 15th.
The battle for the 30th position in points rages on between David Ragan, who qualified 21st, and Chris Buescher, who timed slowly in the 31st spot. The latter makes the Chase field only if he finishes 30th or better in points.
The Federated Auto Parts 400 will be telecast by NBCSN at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.