Denny Hamlin Rockets To Martinsville Pole Over William Byron

Martinsville, V.A. -- Denny Hamlin will begin Sunday's Cook Out 400 from a familiar spot, the front of the field at Martinsville Speedway. Hamlin, a six-time race winner at Martinsville, will begin his quest for a seventh win at the paperclip from the pole position.

In Saturday's qualifying session, Hamlin was able to crank out a lightning-quick 19.275-second lap time (98.241 mph), which allowed him to top the other 36 cars that took a lap around the 0.526-mile short track. Hamlin says the pole-winning speed didn't shock him based off of how his car was in practice earlier in the afternoon.

"I knew it was possible, simply from where my car was in practice," Hamlin explained. "And anytime that I've got fast lap speed at practice here at Martinsville that's in the top-12, I think you're close enough there, qualifying trim doesn't change your car that much, so you've got enough speed to where if you nail it, and you do a good job as a driver, you've got a chance at the pole."

Hamlin continued, "But truthfully, I approached the lap to get into the top-eight. That was the goal."

Hamlin's lap time was enough to best William Byron, the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, by a margin of 0.056 seconds for the pole. This marks the 49th pole position of Hamlin's illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career, and it pulls him to within one of 50 career poles.

The driver is now 10th on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series poles list, and sits just two behind "The Rocketman" Ryan Newman for ninth. Hamlin is proud that at the age of 45, he's still collecting pole positions, as he feels that's something that diminishes over time.

"It's pretty awesome. I mean, you know, really, age, the hardest part is still having the fast time," Hamlin said in his post-qualifying press conference. "You know what I mean? It's one thing to be able to kind of manage races and understand and use your experience to your advantage. But usually, the first thing that goes is your all-out speed, and we're still knocking out poles, which is really good."

Josh Berry, who cut his teeth on regional short tracks and bullrings similar to Martinsville, will start Sunday's race from the third position after he turned an excellent qualifying lap with his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

Ty Gibbs will start fourth as he continues the quest for his first career NASCAR Cup Series win. Sunday's race will mark the 130th of Gibbs' NASCAR Cup Series career, and he comes into Martinsville with momentum on his side. Gibbs has four consecutive top-10 finishes, including three top-fives, over his last four starts.

And Shane van Gisbergen continues to show he isn't a one-trick pony, as the road racing ace continued to get it done on ovals in qualifying. Van Gisbergen, who is inside the Chase cutline after six races, will start the Cook Out 400 from the fifth position.

Austin Cindric, Carson Hocevar, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, and Chase Elliott rounded out the top-10 fastest drivers in Saturday's qualifying session.

The Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway is scheduled for Sunday, March 29, and will be televised on FS1 with coverage set to kick off at 3:30 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event.

Official Cook Out 400 Starting Lineup

Pos	Car	Driver	Lap time	Speed
1	11	Denny Hamlin	19.275	98.241
2	24	William Byron	19.331	97.957
3	21	Josh Berry	19.334	97.941
4	54	Ty Gibbs	19.338	97.921
5	97	Shane van Gisbergen	19.339	97.916
6	2	Austin Cindric	19.351	97.855
7	77	Carson Hocevar	19.363	97.795
8	45	Tyler Reddick	19.376	97.729
9	22	Joey Logano	19.389	97.664
10	9	Chase Elliott	19.392	97.649
11	20	Christopher Bell	19.398	97.618
12	12	Ryan Blaney	19.429	97.463
13	5	Kyle Larson	19.432	97.448
14	38	Zane Smith	19.444	97.387
15	23	Bubba Wallace	19.445	97.382
16	17	Chris Buescher	19.446	97.377
17	60	Ryan Preece	19.453	97.342
18	1	Ross Chastain	19.457	97.322
19	43	Erik Jones	19.486	97.177
20	71	Michael McDowell	19.495	97.133
21	48	Justin Allgaier (i)	19.503	97.093
22	7	Daniel Suarez	19.508	97.068
23	6	Brad Keselowski	19.518	97.018
24	41	Cole Custer	19.530	96.959
25	88	Connor Zilisch #	19.536	96.929
26	35	Riley Herbst	19.561	96.805
27	19	Chase Briscoe	19.562	96.800
28	16	AJ Allmendinger	19.578	96.721
29	34	Todd Gilliland	19.588	96.671
30	3	Austin Dillon	19.625	96.489
31	4	Noah Gragson	19.650	96.366
32	42	John Hunter Nemechek	19.664	96.298
33	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	19.676	96.239
34	8	Kyle Busch	19.705	96.097
35	51	Cody Ware	19.719	96.029
36	10	Ty Dillon	19.760	95.830
37	33*	Austin Hill (i)	19.921	95.055

* "Open" entry
# Rookie of the Year contender
(i) Driver ineligible to score series points