Denny Hamlin wins pole for playoff
Martinsville, Va. — Denny Hamlin has won the pole at Martinsville Speedway, where the five-time winner will attempt to lock himself into NASCAR's championship race.
Hamlin turned a lap at 97.840 mph in his Toyota from Joe Gibbs Racing to earn the top starting spot in Sunday's playoff race.
It is the opening event of the round of eight and the field will be whittled over the next three races to the four drivers who will compete for the championship.
Hamlin is making a strong push for his first career title with five wins this season, including the Daytona 500 and last week at Kansas. The Virginia driver once dominated the paper-clip shaped short track but last won at Martinsville in 2015. Hamlin was second in this race a year ago, fifth in the spring.
Chase Elliott qualified second but will forfeit that position at the start of the race as punishment for an engine change. He will drop to the back of the field, but his strong qualifying effort still gave him a very good pit stall that should ease his Chevrolet's battle from the back.
Martin Truex Jr., Hamlin's teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, qualified third and was followed by four Ford drivers, with Ryan Blaney at sixth the highest of the title contenders.
Kyle Larson qualified 14th, a spot behind points leader Kyle Busch, and confirmed he's been racing with a fractured rib suffered in a crash at Talladega Superspeedway two weeks ago.
Kevin Harvick was the lowest qualifying playoff driver at 22nd.
Earlier in the day, the engine made by Hendrick Motorsports failed Elliott just five laps in to the first of two practice sessions,
Elliott is now susceptible to dropping a lap down at NASCAR's shortest track if his Chevrolet is not perfect at the start. The paperclip-shaped 0.526-mile oval takes under 20 seconds per lap, and the leaders could be on Elliott's bumper in no time.
“We broke a motor there, five laps in, and yeah, unfortunate way to start the day and it is what it is at this point,” Elliott said. “Starting in the back will be unfortunate in the first stage, but there's nothing I can do now.”
Elliott completed 58 laps in the second and final practice session before qualifying.
The round of eight began with strategical changes from Team Penske, which swapped the over-the-wall pit crews for contender Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski, who was eliminated last week. The jackman from Blaney's crew went to reigning series champion Joey Logano.
“We had a rookie jackman this year who has made a lot of good gains over this season, but I feel the opportunity to put basically the same team together that won the championship last year for the next few races, I think was a smart play,” Logano said.