Denny Hamlin Takes Martinsville Pole; Kyle Larson to Start P3

Heading into Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, only seven drivers remain mathematically alive in the Chase for the championship. On Saturday, Denny Hamlin, the runner-up driver in the standings, took a crucial pole position for Sunday's event.

Hamlin was able to crank out a 19.226-second (98.492 mph) lap around the 0.526-mile Virginia short track known affectionately as the paper clip, which was fast enough to secure Hamlin his sixth pole position of the season by a margin of 0.049 seconds over Ty Gibbs, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.

Following his pole-winning run, Hamlin was very happy with his performance on his qualifying lap, as well as the performance of his No. 11 King's Hawaiian Toyota.

"Yeah, it was a great lap," Hamlin explained. "Truthfully, kind of hit all of the marks I wanted to hit. The car did a lot of the things I needed it to do there on that first lap. So, it was really a great job by the race team, great adjustments there, and we'll see what we've got tomorrow."

While Hamlin is still seeking a championship, Gibbs is no longer mathematically alive in the championship race.

Hamlin, who comes into the weekend trailing Kyle Larson, the series point leader, by 73 points, needs to make up points in a hurry. He'll now have a chance to potentially rack up some early Stage Points, and if all goes well, perhaps he can take a win.

"We're going to give it all we've got. And all we've got is all we've got," Hamlin said about his ranking in the points. "I wish I had a little bit more. But we just need to control our own destiny tomorrow, and that's getting the best day we possibly can. And wherever the chips fall from there, they do."

While it was a big deal for Hamlin to score the pole, Larson, who was only able to muster the 29th-fastest lap of Saturday's practice session, was able to click off an impressive qualifying lap in his own right. Larson slotted in with the third-fastest lap in the qualifying session, which will put him on the inside of Row 2 at the start of Sunday's race at Martinsville.

"Happy to start in the first couple of rows, and hopefully we can stay in the hunt all day," Larson said.

If Larson exits Sunday's race with a point lead of 75 points or more, he'll lock up the championship a week early. But Larson isn't even beginning to think about ending the championship fight a week early.

"I think everybody else is convinced that we're going to lock it up here this weekend. But, to me, I'm not looking at it that way," Larson stated. "Obviously, Denny starts ahead of me. So, he's really, really good here. He was one position away from a max-points day earlier this year. I'm more kind of looking at how to keep it up front to leave myself a buffer for next week."

Austin Cindric, who had been enjoying a solid Chase prior to an early exit in a crash at Talladega Superspeedway a week ago, will start from the fourth position in Sunday's race. Cindric is no longer alive in the championship fight.

Joey Logano, another of the seven drivers eligible to collect the Bill France Cup, will start fifth.

Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Josh Berry rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Sunday's Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Other drivers mathematically in the hunt for the championship, who will start outside of the top-10 on Sunday include Chase Briscoe (11th), Tyler Reddick (12th), Ryan Blaney (13th), and Christopher Bell (14th).

Official Xfinity 500 Starting Lineup

Pos	Car	Driver	Lap time	Speed
1	11	Denny Hamlin (C)	19.226	98.492
2	54	Ty Gibbs (C)	19.275	98.241
3	5	Kyle Larson (C)	19.300	98.114
4	2	Austin Cindric (C)	19.325	97.987
5	22	Joey Logano (C)	19.330	97.962
6	60	Ryan Preece (C)	19.343	97.896
7	48	Alex Bowman	19.354	97.840
8	24	William Byron (C)	19.368	97.770
9	9	Chase Elliott (C)	19.379	97.714
10	21	Josh Berry	19.380	97.709
11	19	Chase Briscoe (C)	19.382	97.699
12	45	Tyler Reddick (C)	19.394	97.638
13	12	Ryan Blaney (C)	19.414	97.538
14	20	Christopher Bell (C)	19.416	97.528
15	23	Bubba Wallace (C)	19.433	97.442
16	1	Ross Chastain	19.443	97.392
17	33	Austin Hill (i)	19.449	97.362
18	17	Chris Buescher (C)	19.457	97.322
19	88	Connor Zilisch #	19.490	97.158
20	3	Austin Dillon	19.495	97.133
21	41	Cole Custer	19.506	97.078
22	34	Todd Gilliland	19.508	97.068
23	6	Brad Keselowski	19.523	96.993
24	7	Daniel Suarez (C)	19.537	96.924
25	77	Carson Hocevar (C)	19.540	96.909
26	71	Michael McDowell	19.552	96.849
27	35	Riley Herbst	19.555	96.835
28	10	Ty Dillon	19.559	96.815
29	97	Shane van Gisbergen	19.584	96.691
30	43	Erik Jones	19.588	96.671
31	4	Noah Gragson	19.620	96.514
32	16	AJ Allmendinger	19.624	96.494
33	38	Zane Smith	19.643	96.401
34	47	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	19.703	96.107
35	42	John Hunter Nemechek	19.726	95.995
36	66	Josh Bilicki (i) *	20.004	94.661
37	51	Cody Ware	0.000	0.000

(C) indicates a Chase contender
# indicates a Rookie of the Year contender
(i) indicates a driver ineligible to score points
* indicates an "Open" entry

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