NXS: Denny Hamlin Scores ToyotaCare 250 Pole at Richmond

After leading practice earlier today, Denny Hamlin kept the positive momentum rolling and scored the Coors Light Pole Award for the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond International Raceway. Hamlin topped the charts with a lap of 21.76 seconds.

“It’s got a great set-up under it, and it’s been fast all day,” he said. “We have a great car and I’m excited to run this race tonight. Hopefully we can win.”

It marks the fourth straight pole award for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as they had won the pole the past three races with Erik Jones.

“I love this track,” he added. “It fits my driving style perfectly, and it’s in front of the hometown fans. I love racing here – it’s always good here. It’s always good when you run fast.”

After leading all the laps last weekend, Joey Logano qualified second with a lap of 21.81 seconds.

“We tried everything,” he commented. “We tried everything that we can to beat him. Our Ford has speed in it and it has less laps than everyone so we’ll see if that pays off at the beginning of the race. It’s hard to adjust on the car when you don’t run enough laps on cold tires to know what it’ll do. We’ll keep working on it and hopefully have a good race tonight.”

Erik Jones would qualify third as he shifts over to the No. 54 Monster Energy Camry, filling in for the injured Kyle Busch.

“It’s definitely pretty big,” he said. “I feel our Camry is close. We’ve been working on getting it better all day. We learned a lot through practice. Just on the splitter a little too much there in qualifying. We’re about adjustment or two away from being pretty good, so hopefully we can roll up there and have a good race.”

Jones is coming off a busy weekend at Bristol where he ran his first laps in a Sprint Cup Series event, filling in for Hamlin after the rain delay due to Hamlin suffering from neck pain.

“It was wild,” he said. “I think within two hours I went from my couch to rolling off pit lane in the 11 car. Pretty cool opportunity. Learned a lot. Happy we could complete all the laps and learn all I can. Hopefully I get the opportunity to do it again, and continue learning. It was pretty wild, but all in all, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Aric Almirola and Brian Scott rounded out the top-five, followed by Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Regan Smith, Daniel Saurez, Brennan Poole, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Chris Buescher. Austin Dillon and Ryan Reed both barely missed making the final round of qualifying, set to start 13th and 14th respectively.

“We got real loose into one on our third lap, and that cost us a tenth which would’ve put us in the top 10,” Reed commented. “I was really looking forward to a top 10 starting spot as the guys brought a good Mustang, but I know we’ll have a good car tonight.”

Johanna Long and Morgan Shepherd would fail to qualify.