Chase Elliott wins Talladega pole as Hendrick goes 1-2-3-4

Chase Elliott’s average lap speed of 192.707 mph led the way on Saturday and handed him the pole for Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

“We had a really fast (car) there. It was really faster than I was expecting it to be today, which is nice," said Elliott, who won the spring race at Talladega. "Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and our team do such a good job at these places; really, Hendrick, as a whole, and our body shop and our engine shop doing the job that they do coming to these places and have fast race cars and really, it’s kind of on them. 

"I’m really proud of the effort. It was a tough week last week, obviously, so it’s just nice to come back and get a pole. Obviously, it’s a long race and anything can happen. So, we’ve got to take advantage of a good pit pick and we’ll go to work from there and see what happens.”  

The pole is his fourth this season, eighth of his career and fifth on a superspeedway.

His three HMS teammates will fill the first two rows of the field.

Alex Bowman ended up second (192.552 mph), William Byron third (192.248 mph) and Jimmie Johnson was fourth (191.566 mph). Aric Almirola completed the top-five.

The four Hendrick drivers also posted the four fastest speeds in qualifying for the season opening Daytona 500, when Byron won the pole.

Rounding out Sunday’s top-10 starters are Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.

Before Denny Hamlin could complete his first qualifying lap, he pulled off the track and took his No. 11 Toyota directly to the garage. 

After an evaluation by his team, Hamlin said the engine blew. Either way, he will start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	49.692		192.707
2	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	49.732	0.040	192.552
3	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	49.808	0.116	192.258
4	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	49.988	0.296	191.566
5	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	49.992	0.30	191.551
6	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	50.007	0.315	191.493
7	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	50.053	0.361	191.317
8	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	50.055	0.363	191.310
9	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	50.078	0.386	191.222
10	22	Joey Logano		Ford	50.130	0.438	191.023
11	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	50.179	0.487	190.837
12	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	50.195	0.503	190.776
13	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	50.223	0.531	190.670
14	21	Paul Menard		Ford	50.264	0.572	190.514
15	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	50.315	0.623	190.321
16	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	50.316	0.624	190.317
17	38	David Ragan		Ford	50.341	0.649	190.223
18	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	50.452	0.760	189.804
19	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	50.481	0.789	189.695
20	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	50.567	0.875	189.373
21	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	50.577	0.885	189.335
22	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	50.594	0.902	189.271
23	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	50.616	0.924	189.189
24	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	50.656	0.964	189.040
25	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	50.750	1.058	188.690
26	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	50.776	1.084	188.593
27	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	50.863	1.171	188.270
28	62	Brendan Gaughan		Chevrolet	50.873	1.181	188.233
29	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	50.881	1.189	188.204
30	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	51.011	1.319	187.724
31	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	51.176	1.484	187.119
32	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	51.956	2.264	184.310
33	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	52.002	2.310	184.147
34	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	52.324	2.632	183.014
35	77	Jones Blake		Chevrolet	52.407	2.715	182.724
36	66	Joey Gase		Toyota	53.101	3.409	180.336
37	51	Austin Theriault		Ford	53.227	3.535	179.909
38	27	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	53.471	3.779	179.088
39	52	Spencer Boyd		Chevrolet	54.404	4.712	176.016
40	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota