Denny Hamlin has answered Kyle Larson in the intensifying battle for the NASCAR Cup Series championship, rocketing to pole position at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Hamlin lapped the 1.5-mile track in 28.910s, just 0.017s clear of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs for the top spot. Hamlin has won the last two Cup races at Vegas, and is trying to win three in-a-row on Sunday to erase his 26-point deficit to Larson.
“It was good,” said Hamlin. “It had a lot of really good characteristics of cars I’ve had here in the past, and I thought we improved on that slightly this time around. I feel like it’s pretty good. We have a long way to go, but that’s a great start.”
It was another pair of JGR cars directly behind them, as Christopher Bell qualified third and Chase Briscoe fourth, with 23XI’s Tyler Reddick making it a sweep of the top five starting spots in fifth.
Championship leader Kyle Larson will start sixth, leading the way for Chevrolet, while Austin Cindric leads the way for Ford in seventh.
William Byron, Bubba Wallace, and Carson Hocevar filled out the remainder of the top ten.
The two lowest-starting Chase drivers both belong to Team Penske, with Ryan Blaney in 20th and teammate Joey Logano 23rd.
Qualifying went incident-free, but two cars did not take part — the No. 4 of Noah Gragson and the No. 21 of Josh Berry, as both crashed in practice.
Watch: Josh Berry hits wall hard during Las Vegas practice
NASCAR Cup Las Vegas Chase race starting lineup
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