Denny Hamlin was convinced he had to improve his performance at Phoenix Raceway, and on Saturday afternoon, he took the first step in that direction.
Touring the one-mile track in 27.138 seconds (132.655 seconds) in the final round of qualifying, Hamlin put his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the pole for Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Hamlin, who hasn’t won at Phoenix since 2019, beat JGR teammate Ty Gibbs (132.227 mph) by 0.088 seconds for the top starting spot in the fourth NASCAR Cup Series event of the season.
“I’m really trying to get better at this place,” Hamlin said after securing his first Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his third at Phoenix and the 41st of his career, 13th-most all-time.
“If we want to make a run at a championship—and you’ve got to win it through Phoenix—you’ve got to get better at Phoenix.”
The pole position was the 150th for Toyota in the Cup Series, with Hamlin accounting for 36 of those. His first five poles came in Chevrolets, before Joe Gibbs Racing switched to Toyota. Included in that group of five was Hamlin’s first career pole, at Phoenix in 2005.
Unlike the rest of his final-round competitors, who made sharp cuts across the frontstretch dogleg, Hamlin took a more conservative approach and benefitted from a more favorable angle into Turn 1 on his money lap.
“I was kind of 50-50 on it,” Hamlin explained. “I didn’t cut it in the first round, but we consistently saw that I was about a half-car-length behind entering Turn 1, but my angle was better.
“That was a very indecisive decision—‘OK, I won’t go all the way, but I won’t stay where I was,’ and it netted out in a good position where I was able to cut a little bit but also keep my angle into Turn 1.”
Chase Elliott (132.144 mph), winless since the fall Talladega race in 2022, qualified third in his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, followed by Toyota drivers Erik Jones and DAYTONA 500 winner William Byron.
Tyler Reddick was sixth fastest, ahead of Noah Gragson in the top Ford, Chase Briscoe, Michael McDowell and Sunoco rookie Carson Hocevar.
Hamlin’s pole-winning run broke a streak of three straight poles to open the season by Ford drivers.
STARTING LINEUP
- Wallace learning that effort can equal results - April 9, 2024
- A win in NASCAR Cup is bound to happen soon for Ty Gibbs - March 26, 2024
- Christian Eckes holds off Kyle Busch for Truck win at Bristol - March 16, 2024