Starting Lineup NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Denny Hamlin secured the pole position for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. And while there is a long way to go between Saturday's qualifying session and the checkered flag being shown in Sunday's race, Hamlin will begin his quest for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship with the best track position possible.

While Hamlin took the pole position with a lap time of 26.914 seconds (133.759 mph), he doesn't carry a massive advantage over his fellow Championship 4 contenders as William Byron snatched the second starting spot in the 38-car field, and Kyle Larson, his teammate and fellow championship contender, was third-fastest.

Chase Briscoe, the final Championship 4 contender, was only 12th-fastest after suffering a plethora of tire issues in Friday's practice session.

Official Starting Lineup NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway (Race 36 of 36):

Pos	Car	Driver	Lap time	Speed
1	11	Denny Hamlin (P)	26.914	133.759
2	24	Willim Byron (P)	26.956	133.551
3	5	Kyle Larson (P)	26.979	133.437
4	2	Austin Cindric	27.017	133.249
5	12	Ryan Blaney	27.029	133.190
6	77	Carson Hocevar	27.039	133.141
7	21	Josh Berry	27.093	132.876
8	48	Alex Bowman	27.094	132.871
9	17	Chris Buescher	27.111	132.787
10	22	Joey Logano	27.119	132.748
11	8	Kyle Busch	27.129	132.699
12	19	Chase Briscoe (P)	27.133	132.680
13	1	Ross Chastain	27.137	132.660
14	99	Daniel Suarez	27.143	132.631
15	43	Erik Jones	27.154	132.577
16	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	27.172	132.489
17	9	Chase Elliott	27.176	132.470
18	4*	Noah Gragson	27.184	132.431
19	6	Brad Keselowski	27.189	132.406
20	20	Christopher Bell	27.196	132.372
21	60	Ryan Preece	27.197	132.368
22	38*	Zane Smith	27.218	132.265
23	23*	Bubba Wallace	27.219	132.261
24	45*	Tyler Reddick	27.220	132.256
25	54	Ty Gibbs	27.238	132.168
26	3	Austin Dillon	27.243	132.144
27	41	Cole Custer	27.244	132.139
28	42	John Hunter Nemechek	27.251	132.105
29	7	Justin Haley	27.300	131.868
30	34*	Todd Gilliland	27.306	131.839
31	88	Shane van Gisbergen #	27.316	131.791
32	35*	Riley Herbst #	27.359	131.584
33	51	Cody Ware	27.445	131.171
34	10	Ty Dillon	27.522	130.804
35	44*	JJ Yeley (i)	27.720	129.870
36	66*	Casey Mears (i)	27.765	129.660
37	71	Michael McDowell	27.959	128.760
38	16	AJ Allmendinger	0.000	0.000

(P) indicates NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Driver
* indicates "Open" entry
# indicates Rookie of the Year contender
(i) indicates a driver ineligible to score points