NASCAR News: Hamlin wins pole at Nashville Superspeedway

Denny Hamlin claimed his second pole position of the season and 42nd of his decorated career Saturday afternoon just bettering his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell to earn the top starting position for Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Hamlin’s No. 11 JGR Toyota turned a fast lap of 160.354 mph (29.859-seconds) around the 1.333-mile oval – only .095-second fastest than Bell – to claim his second Nashville pole position in the four races the track has hosted.

“Felt pretty good about it all day,’’ the 43-year-old Hamlin said, “seems like we definitely have fixed some of the things we weren’t very good with last year.

“I definitely feel pretty good about it and we’ll certainly work on it overnight to make it a little bit better and I feel pretty confident that tomorrow we’ll be in contention,” he added.”

With a new format to set the starting grid, it puts the pole winner in position one and divides the remaining drivers through first five rows by speed and qualifying group, so Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry – who was third quickest – will start his No. 4 Ford on the outside of the front row Sunday. Bell will start third.

Hamlin is hoping the good start position will translate into a solid finishing position. The three-race winner this season has finished 24th or worse in the last three races and is ready to get back on track before the summer break in competition in three weeks. Hamlin has a pair of top-10 finishes in the three-race Nashville Superspeedway history, including a best showing of third place last year.

Bell will start on the second row alongside Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who co-leads the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings with his Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott and was fastest in the Group A first round qualifiers.

Roush Fenway Keselowski owner/driver Brad Keselowski will start alongside 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick on row three with Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs on the fourth row and RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher and Team Penske’s Austin Cindric starting their Fords on row five. It’s the best start for Buescher in the last six weeks.

Defending race winner Ross Chastain will roll off 20th. Elliott will start 13th.

Gibbs (159.287 mph), Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace and Chastain were fastest in Saturday’s practice session.

Rivalry? What Rivalry?

In the midst of their matching three-win seasons, Hamlin and Larson have raced hard, door-to-door often this season resulting sometimes in hard feelings and damaged race cars. However, the two golfing buddies, have never made it a huge public issue.

Asked about the style of racing between the pair and if it was actually a true rivalry, Hamlin wouldn’t go that far.

“I don’t know I just think there’s different [kinds of rivalries] ones for sure,’’ Hamlin said. “I think there are rivalries that come from drivers that probably don’t respect each other. They have a lot of speed, but don’t like each other or deliberately run into each other.

“I don’t think anyone’s deliberately running into each other, although it does happen. Certainly I’ve had my fair of mistakes and he’s been on the bad end of those but it’s come from competition, wanting to beat him. He’s one of the guys, one of the best in our sport, if not THE best. So I challenge myself more when I get to race with him and it does happen often and it does happen towards the front more times than not.

“We know each other’s driving styles and we do things around one another that combat passing each other and that usually means there’s tight quarters conditions.’’

Nashville NASCAR Cup Starting Lineup