Denny Hamlin Dashes to Pocono Pole in First Race Since Birth of Son

Denny Hamlin comes into this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway already as the winningest driver in the track's history with seven victories in his illustrious career. The 44-year-old will chase his eighth win at the 2.5-mile tricky triangle from the pole position as Hamlin toppled a hungry field for the top starting spot.

STARTING LINEUP: The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono

Hamlin's pole-winning run came by virtue of a 52.144-second (172.599 mph) lap, which was 0.083 seconds faster than runner-up starter Chris Buescher's time in the session. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Progressive Toyota Camry XSE missed last weekend's race due to the birth of his third child, son Jameson, last Wednesday.

Needless to say, Hamlin didn't show any signs of rust after the week of rest as he improved from 27th-fastest in practice earlier in the day to take his 44th career NASCAR Cup Series pole position, and his fifth career pole at Pocono Raceway..

“Yes and no,” Hamlin said when asked if winning the pole was a surprise. “We typically can step up from practice, and we make good adjustments, so [we] never really panic too much. Because I was a little more rested than the field, right there, I was able to get a little speed.”

While Hamlin winning the pole at Pocono isn't a surprise to many, there were certainly a few surprises in Saturday's qualifying session at Pocono Raceway.

Behind the front row of Hamlin and Buescher will be Carson Hocevar, who has been embroiled in a feud with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and is coming off sanctions from his team after comments he made about Mexico in a Twitch livestream. Hocevar will start from the third position and will look to have a drama-free day on Sunday.

John Hunter Nemechek was one of the big surprises in the session as the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB driver secured the fourth-place starting position, which ties his career best NASCAR Cup Series qualifying effort. Nemechek also started fourth at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the fall of 2022 while filling in for a suspended Bubba Wallace.

Cole Custer joined Nemechek atop the board of surprises on Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway as he secured the fifth-place starting spot with his No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Custer is coming off his first top 10 finish of the season, an eighth-place result, last weekend in Mexico City.

Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, and Daniel Suarez will round out the top-10 drivers on the starting grid for Sunday's The Great American Getaway 400.

William Byron, the NASCAR Cup Series regular season point leader, found trouble during his qualifying run. As Byron was exiting the tunnel turn on his qualifying lap, he lost control of his No. 24 Chevrolet and slapped the outside wall with the right rear of his car. However, he was unable to wrangle the out-of-control machine and skidded hard into the inside wall of the track.

The No. 24 spins! @WilliamByron loses control exiting the tunnel turn! #BuschLightPole pic.twitter.com/QRZrC2Af2h
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 21, 2025

Byron qualified 31st, but will have to drop to the rear of the field on Sunday due to the crash in qualifying.

Due to the qualifying format at Pocono Raceway, which calls for two cars to be on track during their qualifying runs, Chase Elliott had to abort his initial qualifying run as Byron crashed. Elliott was given a fresh set of tires, and was allowed to re-attack the track, but was only able to muster an 18th-place run in qualifying.

Four drivers (Bubba Wallace, Josh Berry, Cody Ware, and Brennan Poole) were unable to make a lap in qualifying, and will start from positions 34 through 37 in Sunday's race.

Wallace, who was second-fastest in practice earlier in the day, was unable to get his car to start on pit road. After the team attempted a push start, Wallace was pushed back to the garage and was unable to make a qualifying run.

Josh Berry caught a bump on the track in practice, which caused damage to the underbody of his car. As a result, Berry and his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team pulled out of the qualifying session, and worked on the damage to the diffuser on their car.

Cody Ware crashed his No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse in practice, which forced him to sit out qualifying, and Brennan Poole's No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet failed pre-race inspection multiple times on Saturday.

As a result, Poole was not allowed to compete in Saturday's qualifying session and will be forced to conduct a pass-through penalty following the start of Sunday's race.

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