Denny Hamlin soared to the Busch Light Pole Award during Saturday’s qualifying session for the NASCAR Cup Series, securing a prime starting position for Sunday’s race as Toyota drivers swept the top five spots at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Hamlin lapped the 1.5-mile track in 28.910 seconds at a speed of 186.787 mph, putting his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the No. 1 spot for Sunday’s South Point 400 (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the fifth of 10 races in The Chase presented by Mobil 1. The pole was his fifth of the season, his second at Las Vegas and the 53rd of his Cup Series career — tops among active drivers in the series and ninth all-time.
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“Yeah, it is important, and the races that we’ve really succeeded well here, we’ve started up front,” Hamlin said, “and so yeah, I mean, today was executed by the team perfectly, how we approached the week, and the adjustments we made to the car for temperature seemed to be really good changes, and I couldn’t ask for today to go a whole lot better than it did.”
Teammate Ty Gibbs clinched the second starting spot, ending qualifying just 0.017 seconds shy of Hamlin’s pole-winning time with his No. 54 JGR Toyota clocked at 186.677 mph. Christopher Bell was third-fastest, with fellow JGR driver Chase Briscoe fourth and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick rounding out the top five.
Cup Series points leader Kyle Larson, last week’s winner at Kansas Speedway, was sixth-fastest in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Chase-eligible drivers swept the first 14 spots in qualifying. Sunday’s 400-miler is the second event in a three-week stretch of races on 1.5-mile ovals.
Practice recap: Byron tops the Vegas board
William Byron rose to the top of the Cup Series practice leaderboard, laying down a fast lap of 182.235 mph as Hendrick Motorsports drivers went 1-2 in the opening on-track session.
Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet was just 0.065 seconds ahead of the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kyle Larson, who posted a lap of 181.837 mph. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe were third and fourth, respectively, and Daniel Suárez completed the top five in Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevy.
MORE: Practice results | Weekend schedule: Vegas
Josh Berry crashed with approximately 18 minutes left in the 50-minute session, when his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford spun at the exit of Turn 2 and made significant contact with the outside retaining wall. Berry, who was evaluated and released from the infield care center, said a tire problem caused him to lose control of his car, which sustained heavy left-side damage.
Noah Gragson’s No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford also wrecked with four minutes remaining in practice, backing into the wall in Turn 2. He drove back to the garage and was evaluated and released.
Tyler Reddick also forced a stoppage 13 minutes into the session when he brought his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota to a halt on the track’s apron with a flat left-rear tire. With the car’s lifter system deployed, Reddick drove back to pit road for service.
Fellow Chase drivers Chris Buescher and Ty Gibbs also reported having tire issues during practice.
Larson topped the consecutive 10-lap averages chart, with Briscoe second and Suárez third.
This story will be updated.