Denny Hamlin Takes Pole As Joe Gibbs Racing Sweeps Top-4 at Vegas

In desperate need of a momentum shift in the championship fight, Denny Hamlin secured a pivotal pole position in qualifying for the South Point 400 at Vegas.

Denny Hamlin will start from the pole position in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. | Wes Masure | Racing America On SI

Denny Hamlin, the favorite to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship entering the Chase, came into Las Vegas Motor Speedway needing to find momentum, and needing to find it quickly. After Saturday's qualifying session for Sunday's South Point 400, perhaps he and Joe Gibbs Racing have woken up.

With a lap time of 28.910 seconds (186.787 mph) around the 1.5-mile oval near Sin City, Hamlin, who has won the last two races at the LVMS facility, will start from pole position. Overall, it was a strong effort for Joe Gibbs Racing, which swept the top-four spots, and Toyota Racing, which swept the top-five spots in qualifying.

The Las Vegas pole marks the 53rd pole of Hamlin's future NASCAR Hall of Fame career. The latest pole-winning run comes on his 752nd start.

After seeing a 25-point advantage over the field at the start of the Chase dwindle to the point that Hamlin now faces a 26-point deficit to new point leader Kyle Larson heading into the week, Hamlin now has hope that he can mount a challenge.

"I don't know. They're on a heck of a run right now," Hamlin said of Larson. "But it seemed like all of us [Joe] Gibbs [Racing] guys kind of nailed our balance, and 23XI [Racing] as well. And that's what really matters with the track being so hot today; balance is more of a factor than it's been in qualifying in quite some time."

As far as how his car handled on the long run in practice, Hamlin was optimistic that his race day speed could match his qualifying day speed.

"It was good. It had a lot of really good characteristics of cars that I've had here in the past," Hamlin said of his car in race trim. "And I thought we improved on that slightly this time around. Improved on some of the deficiencies that we did have. So, I feel like it's pretty good. Obviously, we have a long way to go, but it's a good start."

A little note heading into Sunday's race, Hamlin's last three NASCAR Cup Series wins have all come from the pole.

Ty Gibbs continued his excellent season with a runner-up qualifying effort, driving the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, while Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe rounded out the strong effort for JGR in third and fourth.

Tyler Reddick, the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, was the first non-JGR driver in the qualifying results.

Kyle Larson, the series point leader who is driving a special Kyle Busch tribute paint scheme this weekend, will start from the sixth position at Las Vegas.

The top-14 drivers in the starting lineup for Sunday's South Point 400 at Las Vegas will all be Chase contenders.

The two Chase contenders who failed to qualify inside the top-15 were Team Penske's Ryan Blaney (20th) and Joey Logano (23rd).

Official South Point 400 Starting Lineup

Pos	Car	Driver	Lap time	Speed
1	11	Denny Hamlin (C)	28.910	186.787
2	54	Ty Gibbs (C)	28.927	186.677
3	20	Christopher Bell (C)	28.998	186.220
4	19	Chase Briscoe (C)	29.011	186.136
5	45	Tyler Reddick (C)	29.015	186.111
6	5	Kyle Larson (C)	29.054	185.861
7	2	Austin Cindric (C)	29.144	185.287
8	24	William Byron (C)	29.153	185.230
9	23	Bubba Wallace (C)	29.177	185.077
10	77	Carson Hocevar (C)	29.185	185.027
11	7	Daniel Suarez (C)	29.211	184.862
12	60	Ryan Preece (C)	29.279	184.433
13	9	Chase Elliott (C)	29.280	184.426
14	17	Chris Buescher (C)	29.340	184.049
15	48	Alex Bowman	29.360	183.924
16	6	Brad Keselowski	29.387	183.755
17	1	Ross Chastain	29.387	183.755
18	71	Michael McDowell	29.387	183.755
19	16	AJ Allmendinger	29.426	183.511
20	12	Ryan Blaney (C)	29.431	183.480
21	43	Erik Jones	29.478	183.187
22	35	Riley Herbst	29.488	183.125
23	22	Joey Logano (C)	29.490	183.113
24	41	Cole Custer	29.573	182.599
25	97	Shane van Gisbergen	29.586	182.519
26	47	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	29.675	181.971
27	34	Todd Gilliland	29.695	181.849
28	3	Austin Dillon	29.716	181.720
29	10	Ty Dillon	29.773	181.372
30	38	Zane Smith	29.788	181.281
31	88	Connor Zilisch #	29.895	180.632
32	42	John Hunter Nemechek	29.942	180.349
33	33	Austin Hill (i)	30.055	179.671
34	51	Cody Ware	30.259	178.459
35	21	Josh Berry	0.000	0.000
36	4	Noah Gragson	0.000	0.000

(C) indicates a Chase contender
# indicates a Rookie of the Year contender
(i) indicates a driver ineligible to score points