Refreshed Hamlin wins pole at Dover
Denny Hamlin put a weekend of illness behind him, turning a lap of 160.121 mph Friday at Dover International Speedway to win his first pole of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
He suffered from a migraine and dehydration in the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night in Charlotte, the result of both a busy weekend and a leaky exhaust in the No. 11 Toyota that made him lightheaded.
“I felt like I kept up with my fluids prett y well last week, but obviously it wasn’t enough,” said Hamlin, who finished eighth. “The conditions and the car didn’t make things very easy for me.”
Hamlin made qualifying for Sunday’s 400-mile race look easy on the mile oval in Delaware.
Hamlin, the only driver to hit 160 mph, edged Martin Truex Jr.’s Chevrolet on the final run.
Truex, who has one of his two career Sprint Cup wins at Dover, in 2007, qualified at 159.723 mph. He has 11 top-10s in 12 races in the best start of his career and has been close to ending a losing streak that stands at 68 races.
Truex, who led 131 laps last week at Charlotte before finishing fifth, is teetering bet ween frustra- tion and optimism that a win is ahead because of all the near misses.
“Doing this as long as I have, you understand how hard it is to put yourself in those positions,” said Truex, who is second in series points, 41 behind Kevin Harvick, after finishing 24th last season. “You never know when your next opportunit y is going to come. But for us to come from where we did last year to be in those positions to just be running the way we are ... it was an amazing feeling for me.”
Tyler Reddick, in a Ford, gained the lead with seven laps left and won the 200-lap race at Dover for his second victory of the season. He passed Erik Jones’ Toyota. Jones wound up third, with Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Daniel Saurez second.
IndyCar: Will Power won the pole for today’s 70-lap race in Detroit with a time of 1 minute, 16.0941 seconds on the 2.35-mile street course on Belle Isle. Power, Helio Castroneves and Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya gave team owner Roger Penske’s Chevrolets a sweep of the top three qualifying spots. Penske driver Simon Pagenaud qualified fifth. A second race is set for the same venue Sunday.