Utilizing strategy and very little track time, Denny Hamlin denied Team Penske from snagging another NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole this season in preparation for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
Hamlin in the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry took advantage of a clean track in the final minutes of knock-out qualifying to post a lap of 14.761 seconds at 129.991 miles per hour, setting a new track record for the 54th-annual event.
Friday’s accomplishment was the 18th pole in 295 NSCS races for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. He is now tied with Lee Petty, Joe Weatherly and Donnie Allison for 38th on the all-time list.
“It’s fast — it’s faster than I ever imagined going around this track,” offered Hamlin. “Every new rule change we have just makes these cars go a little bit faster. Darian (Grubb, crew chief) just made an excellent call with our adjustments and the team stepped up. We were pretty strategic in how we executed that qualifying session and (Brad) Keselowski obviously had some laps on his tires put one down there. We thought that it was going to be one and done for us — we felt like one good effort in that final round, but luckily we didn’t have to go back out there. I’m not sure we would have even made it in on time. Our FedEx Freight Toyota Camry — I was way more excited about it in race trim than I was qualifying. Our car was super consistent, didn’t fall off — it’s everything that you need to win a race here.”
Brad Keselowski is the only driver under the new qualifying format to start on the front row as he powered his No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion to a time of 14.764 seconds or 129.965 miles per hour, a mere three-one thousands of a second off Hamlin’s time.
Daddy-to-be Matt Kenseth was third, followed by a surprising run by Marcos Ambrose to round out the top-five.
Jeff Gordon, an obvious favorite for Sunday’s race was sixth, flanked by Bristol master Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne to round out the top-10.
Six-time NSCS champion Jimmie Johnson will start 11th with Carl Edwards grabbing the last spot in the final round of knockout qualifying, grabbing 12th.
Points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. will roll from 14th.
Front Row Motorsports has good reason to be amped about the performance of their cars after negotiating the 16th and 19th fastest laps respectively.
Cole Whitt strutted his speed stick stuff for Swan Racing after delivering his best starting spot of 2014 with 18th.
Rookie Kyle Larson closed out the top-20.
Other notables in the field: Michael McDowell (24th), Austin Dillon (26th), Kevin Harvick (27th), Martin Truex Jr. (29th), Alex Bowman (33rd) and Danica Patrick (36th).
Provisionals for round four included: Tony Stewart (37th), Brian Vickers (38th), Travis Kvapil (39th), Ryan Truex (40th), Parker Kligerman (41st), Joe Nemechek (42nd) and Timmy Hill will bring up the rear of the grid.
Missing the race were David Reutimann and Dave Blaney. Blaney in the No. 77 for Randy Humphries is 0-4 in attempts to make a race in 2014.
Seven drivers suffered heartbreak on Friday after encountering damage on their primary machines in some way shape or form. Justin Allgaier, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Parker Kligerman, Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Of those competitors, all but Kligerman and Stenhouse Jr. went to a back-up. Biffle was the fastest in the secondary car lining up eighth.
The weather has many on the grounds nervous, as a cold front is expected to push through Saturday night into Sunday, elevating the chances of rain for Sunday, with early forecast models indicating snow possible on Monday, should NASCAR be unable to get the Food City 500 in during it’s original slot. No word from NASCAR yet on a game plan should inclement weather surface.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
