Denny Hamlin edges Kyle Larson for Dover pole
Denny Hamlin will start his 500th NASCAR Cup Series race from the sharp end of the field sunday at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.
Hamlin set the early benchmark in qualifying at 166.984mph and no one seemed to be able to get close to him.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. gave it a proper shot, but still came a full tenth shy as he sat on the provisional front row.
The other JGR playoff driver, Kyle Busch, struggled on his lap and found himself fighting the car to stay on the bottom. He would qualify 18th, the worst of all remaining title contenders.
Kyle Larson seemed to be on a flyer that could unseat Hamlin, but lost it out of the final corner and came up just 0.003 seconds short of pole. For Larson, losing the pole to Hamlin of all drivers made it hurt just a bit more.
"I felt like I ran a good lap ... Three thousandths of a second when you're going that fast isn't much so, wish I was on the pole," he told NBCSN. "I told Denny a few days I was going to get the pole so for him to be a little bit quicker than me is frustrating (laughs).
"Qualifying here is so much fun, especially when it's cooler like this. We're not all the way out of the gas ever, so that was a lot of fun."
Brad Keselowski was the final car on track and took the unique approach of utilizing his first lap as an extension of sorts of his warmup lap, but it did not pay off. He slotted in 16th.
Truex ended up third, Kevin Harvick fourth and last week's winner Chase Elliott fifth.
The pole comes in Hamlin's 500th career start and is the 32nd of his career.
"I got 'em!," a smiling Hamlin told NBCSN in reference to Larson. "I'm so happy I beat him. To have that lap there, that was a really good lap for us. I knew it was really solid and about nine tenths quicker than we ran yesterday.
"So proud of this whole FedEx team for giving me a car that obviously was super fast. This is probably as optimistic as I've been going into a Dover race simply because we've really dedicated so much time to working on my technique around this race track and figuring out what I need to do to be succesful and still learning, even at start 500."
| Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Time | Gap | Mph | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 |  Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 21.559 | 166.984 | ||
| 2 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 21.562 | 0.003 | 166.960 | |
| 3 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 21.660 | 0.101 | 166.205 | |
| 4 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 21.687 | 0.128 | 165.998 | |
| 5 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 21.695 | 0.136 | 165.937 | |
| 6 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 21.721 | 0.162 | 165.738 | |
| 7 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 21.730 | 0.171 | 165.670 | |
| 8 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 21.737 | 0.178 | 165.616 | |
| 9 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 21.767 | 0.208 | 165.388 | |
| 10 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 21.781 | 0.222 | 165.282 | |
| 11 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 21.782 | 0.223 | 165.274 | |
| 12 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 21.838 | 0.279 | 164.850 | |
| 13 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 21.858 | 0.299 | 164.699 | |
| 14 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 21.859 | 0.30 | 164.692 | |
| 15 | 41 |  Daniel Suarez | Ford | 21.866 | 0.307 | 164.639 | |
| 16 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 21.897 | 0.338 | 164.406 | |
| 17 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 21.901 | 0.342 | 164.376 | |
| 18 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 21.932 | 0.373 | 164.144 | |
| 19 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 21.975 | 0.416 | 163.823 | |
| 20 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | 21.977 | 0.418 | 163.808 | |
| 21 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 22.031 | 0.472 | 163.406 | |
| 22 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 22.088 | 0.529 | 162.984 | |
| 23 | 36 | Matt Tifft | Ford | 22.113 | 0.554 | 162.800 | |
| 24 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Ford | 22.127 | 0.568 | 162.697 | |
| 25 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 22.132 | 0.573 | 162.660 | |
| 26 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 22.137 | 0.578 | 162.624 | |
| 27 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 22.171 | 0.612 | 162.374 | |
| 28 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 22.228 | 0.669 | 161.958 | |
| 29 | 32 | Corey Lajoie | Ford | 22.320 | 0.761 | 161.290 | |
| 30 | 00 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 22.325 | 0.766 | 161.254 | |
| 31 | 8 | Daniel Hemric | Chevrolet | 22.363 | 0.804 | 160.980 | |
| 32 | 47 | Ryan Preece | Chevrolet | 22.401 | 0.842 | 160.707 | |
| 33 | 51 | B.J. McLeod | Ford | 22.721 | 1.162 | 158.444 | |
| 34 | 15 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 22.874 | 1.315 | 157.384 | |
| 35 | 52 | J.J. Yeley | Ford | 23.023 | 1.464 | 156.365 | |
| 36 | 27 | Joe Nemechek | Chevrolet | 23.061 | 1.502 | 156.108 | |
| 37 | 54 | Garrett Smithley | Chevrolet | 23.333 | 1.774 | 154.288 | |
| 38 | 77 | Reed Sorenson | Chevrolet | 23.359 | 1.80 | 154.116 |
Alex Bowman "moving forward" after run-in with Bubba Wallace
Denny Hamlin wins Stage 1 at Dover, Elliott done early
The ex-F1 driver taking on NASCAR with a new team
Saddled with uncompetitive Minardi machinery, Tarso Marques didn't manage to score points in his three partial seasons of Formula 1. But now the Brazilian has the chance to show what he can do in NASCAR, and explains the story of his comeback with new Cup Series entrant Team Stange
The early benefits and challenges of NASCAR's Next Gen car
NASCAR’s new stock car generation is encouraging an influx of fresh blood into its top tier. But there are concerns that parts are in short supply as the entire paddock tries to build up stocks at the same time
How Penske's rookie sensation opened NASCAR's new era in style
After holding his nerve and hip-checking his teammate on the run to the line, Austin Cindric made a perfect start to life as a full-timer in the NASCAR Cup Series by winning the Daytona 500. Here's how the Penske Ford man emerged first across the line in the first points-scoring race for the much-anticipated Next Generation cars
Six key themes to follow in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season
There are plenty of uncertainties ahead of the 2022 NASCAR Cup season as an all-new fleet of cars take to the track for the first time. Ahead of this weekend's Daytona 500, our experts explain what you need to know
How NASCAR had to learn a harsh lesson ahead of Next Gen arrival
The NASCAR Cup kicks off with the Daytona 500 this weekend, but a major engine overhaul and a subsequent mountain of work has been required to be ready for the arrival of the Next Gen cars.
How Larson took the long way round to NASCAR Cup glory
From villain to hero, Kyle Larson had to reach his lifelong goal the hard way and go through a very public shaming after a ban for using a racial slur, but his talents shone long before his name grabbed the headlines...
How NASCAR is gearing up for its "biggest change" in 2022
It’s not just Formula 1 that’s set for upheaval in 2022, as the NASCAR Cup series adopts its Next Gen cars that will cast any in-built advantages aside and require teams to adopt a totally new way of operating. Far more than just a change of machinery, the new cars amount to a shift in NASCAR's core philosophy
Why Bubba Wallace’s Talladega win is such a big moment for NASCAR
Bubba Wallace claimed his maiden NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega on Monday to become the first Black victor in the category since Wendell Scott in 1963. Both Wallace and Scott had faced obstacles and racism in their paths to their breakthrough wins, and NASCAR is trying to put it right with its range of diversity programmes