Hamlin takes Homestead pole, Kyle Busch leads title contenders

Hamlin surprised this year’s NASCAR Cup Series championship contenders by topping the group in the final round of Friday’s qualifying session.

His average lap speed of 173.863 mph was good enough to top his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch, to earn the pole for Sunday’s Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The pole is Hamlin’s fourth of the season and 30th of his career. Hamlin has won at least one race in each of last 12 seasons but has yet to earn a victory this year.

Earlier in the day, Hamlin posted a message on Twitter indicating this weekend’s race would be the last with his current crew chief, Mike Wheeler.

“It’s good for us to get this race team up front and end on a high note with a win,” Hamlin said. “In 2013, we were in the same boat where we hadn’t won a race until the final race and we finally got it done.

“So, hopefully, this is our time to do it. We’re just going to dig in and hats off to the team. We were seventh to 10th in the first two rounds and (Wheeler) just made the right adjustment.”

After Busch, fellow title contender Martin Truex Jr. was third-fastest, Keselowski was fourth and title contender Joey Logano was fifth.

Kevin Harvick, the final of the four drivers competing for the championship on Sunday, will line up 12th.

Rounding out sixth through 11th were Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Ryan Newman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Aric Almirola and Kyle Larson.

Round 2

Jones surprised in the second round with the fastest average lap speed (174.036 mph).

Title contenders Truex (173.941 mph), Kyle Busch (173.566 mph) and Logano (173.511 mph) were second, third and fourth, respectively. Keselowski completed the top-five.

Also advancing to the final round were Stenhouse, Kurt Busch, Harvick (the fourth title contender), Almirola, Newman and Larson.

Larson went out very late and bumped Alex Bowman from the Top 12 in the final minute.

Among those who failed to advance to the final round were Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, Matt Kenseth and Daniel Suarez.

Asked about the prospects this Sunday once again being the final Cup race of Kenseth’s career, he said: “I’m just going to make this an annual deal. I’ll come down here and milk as much as I can out of this every year.”

Round 1

Kyle Busch led all the title contenders in the first 15-minute session of qualifying, posting an average lap speed of 174.644 mph.

Logano was second (174.481 mph) and Truex was (174.121 mph). Keselowski was fourth and Blaney rounded out the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Newman, Suarez and Bowman.

The fourth title contender, Harvick, ended up 16th-fastest in the first round.

Among those who failed to advance out of the first round were Clint Bowyer, William Byron, David Ragan, Chris Buescher and Ty Dillon.

Cla	#	Driver	4506	Time	Gap	Mph
1	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	31.059		173.863
2	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	31.102	0.043	173.622
3	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	31.117	0.058	173.539
4	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	31.136	0.077	173.433
5	22	Joey Logano	Ford	31.148	0.089	173.366
6	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	31.298	0.239	172.535
7	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	31.303	0.244	172.507
8	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	31.317	0.258	172.430
9	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	31.322	0.263	172.403
10	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	31.331	0.272	172.353
11	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	31.390	0.331	172.029
12	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	31.406	0.347	171.942
13	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	31.299	0.240	172.529
14	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	31.301	0.242	172.518
15	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	31.345	0.286	172.276
16	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	31.351	0.292	172.243
17	6	Matt Kenseth	Ford	31.359	0.300	172.199
18	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	31.395	0.336	172.002
19	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	31.404	0.345	171.953
20	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	31.476	0.417	171.559
21	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	31.482	0.423	171.527
22	21	Paul Menard	Ford	31.511	0.452	171.369
23	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	31.574	0.515	171.027
24	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	31.633	0.574	170.708
25	38	David Ragan	Ford	31.393	0.334	172.013
26	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	31.427	0.368	171.827
27	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	31.536	0.477	171.233
28	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	31.616	0.557	170.800
29	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	31.672	0.613	170.498
30	95	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	31.818	0.759	169.715
31	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	31.830	0.771	169.651
32	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	31.962	0.903	168.951
33	23	J.J. Yeley	Ford	32.297	1.238	167.198
34	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	32.335	1.276	167.002
35	99	Kyle Weatherman	Chevrolet	32.355	1.296	166.898
36	51	B.J. McLeod	Ford	32.842	1.783	164.424
37	97	Tanner Berryhill	Toyota	33.138	2.079	162.955
38	66	Timmy Hill	Toyota	33.414	2.355	161.609
39	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet