NASCAR News: Hamlin tops Truex Jr. for Richmond Cup Pole

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. will lead the field to the green flag for Sunday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway.

The fast lap of 118.162 mph in the No. 11 JGR Toyota landed Hamlin, 43, his third Busch Light pole position of the season. It’s his fourth career pole position at the 0.75-mile track for Hamlin, who grew up in the Richmond area and is the hometown favorite this weekend. It is the 54th career pole position for the five-time Richmond winner.

Asked after the session about his work, Hamlin grinned and noted, “we were the slowest car in the first round, but the team made great adjustments and that’s the bottom line to it.

“Was I surprised it held up? Yes, I was,” Hamlin said of being the first to turn in a lap in the final session.

“He [crew chief Chris Gabehart] told me if we backed up my [first round] time we’d have a shot at it. Certainly a great job by this whole FedEx Camry team. Certainly unexpected given the practice and first round qualifying we had.

“We just made the correct adjustments that we’re going to have to make in the race as well. I think we’re headed in the right direction.”

It is the first front-row start of the season for Truex, a three-time Richmond winner who is still racing for his first trophy of the year. He’s ranked 13th in the playoff standings, 108 points up on the field with the top-16 drivers advancing to the 10-race championship battle.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry and Hendrick Motorsports Chase Elliott will start from the second row, followed by JGR’s Christopher Bell and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, who is making only his second top-10 start of the season.

Defending race winner, RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher qualified seventh and will start alongside 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace. Penske Racing’s Joey Logano and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick rounded out the top 10 who advanced to the final qualifying session.

Current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson will start 15th. The track’s winningest active driver Kyle Busch (six wins) will roll off 12th.

“I love winning here and to have five [wins] is certainly exciting and I feel like they have each been a little different,” Hamlin said, adding, “it feels good to come here and still be able to perform 20 years later.”

A 45-minute practice session before qualifying allowed teams to try out the special “option tire” that NASCAR has made available this week. Teams have been given six sets of “prime tires” and two sets of “option tires” for use during the race.

Goodyear’s “prime” tires are a harder rubber compound with typically less grip but will last longer. The new “option” tire has a softer rubber compound offering more grip and speed but will not last as long.

“I think both the option and primary tire behaved about as we expected,” said Goodyear’s Director of Racing Greg Stucker, adding, “so far in the conditions we have now, we like what we see.”

The drivers were also complimentary.

“I understand why we’re doing it and I think it was a good idea,” Hamlin said of the option tire.

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon topped the leaderboard at 118.953 mph in the 45-minute practice session. Bubba Wallace (118.859 mph), Christopher Bell (118.760 mph), Martin Truex Jr. (118.707 mph) and Zane Smith (118.702 mph) rounded out the top five.

Cook Out 400 Qualifying Results

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Rewards Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

CHRIS GABEHART, crew chief, No. 11 FedEx Rewards Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

What are your thoughts on the option tire and how it went in practice?

HAMLIN: “Couple tenths faster, couple tenths slower over 40 some laps or so. Personally, I would love the option tire – the soft tire – just to be the tire. We stopped around lap 40 or so on that run, and I feel like it was just about to take off lap time wise. That’s kind of what we used to have back in the day. It is possible. We’ve built a tire that has some good fall off to it. There was some front-end grip as well, so if we are experimenting this to see if we can run those tires in a race as the only tire, I think that is certainly a viable option.”

GABEHART: “It is not every day that he (Denny Hamlin) is more aggressive than me, but that is more aggressive. For me, I need to see it in the race more because in terms of how it is going to perform with the option, because the track changes so much from practice here in Richmond – especially in the first five or ten minutes. There was considerably more wear with the option, and it does appear that it is going to fire off faster and maybe go slower, and it already seemed like it was going to go slower after 40 laps – which is not quite a get home lap here at Richmond – definitely a lot of potential.”

You get two sets of these for the race. How are you managing the strategy?
GABEHART: “Well, it is like every race, you tell me when the cautions are going to come out, and I’ll tell you the strategy you should use. Unfortunately, my caution Ouija Board is broken right now. I hope we fixed it over the two-week break. Certainly, I think you are going to leave them laying for the end of the race for the most part – now I won’t say – there may be some cars that need some points that might try to put a set on to steal a stage win or something like that, some of those cut off cars potentially, but I think to win the race, you will have to leave them for the end of the race.”

Denny, do you feel any differently about your chances of winning after you got the pole with the option tire in play?

HAMLIN: “I think if you would have asked Chris (Gabehart) that question – he doesn’t want any novelties thrown in – but I understand why we are doing it. I think it is a good idea, but anything that something bizarre can happen and you lose on it is a possibility, but it is the same for everyone. Everyone has the same rules with the tire allotment, so it is just do you get unlucky with cautions or not – that is the only thing that can really throw a wrench in where we would be.”

Were you surprised that your lap was good enough for the pole?

HAMLIN: “He told me I needed to back up – to win the pole – I needed to back up my lap. We did, and it did. We know historically it always does fall off, but I felt like I did as good as I could on the lap. There was no kind of regrets with it, with what I could do different. I feel like we made some really good adjustments between the two rounds, and I was able to execute the lap I was trying to execute. Was I surprised it held up? Yes. I definitely was. When I ran it, that was the most that I could get out of the car. There wasn’t anything left, but as cars go – and those guys ran much faster than us and had less laps on the tires – when they didn’t beat us, it certainly gave us a little bit of hope going into that last round.”

What does your continued success mean at Richmond Raceway, being your home track?

HAMLIN: “I probably put a little more pressure on myself to preform at this race track, just simply because I know what it takes to win here and what I need out of the car. I don’t always express that correctly. I always put that pressure on myself to preform here. I feel like I have good techniques that help equal the success in the past, but we have gone through so many car changes, tire changes – things like that, but the basics still ring true in the end. I love winning here. To have five is certainly exciting, I feel like each one has been a little different, a different car – COTs, Gen 7’s and all the different things, but it feels good to come here and still be able to perform years after I was competitive here in my rookie year.”

If tire management comes into play tomorrow, do you think it will favor the veterans?

HAMLIN: “It will be a little different than Bristol, because I don’t think it is going to hit a cliff where one lap as Kevin Harvick says the switch turns off, the car turns off – I don’t think it will be that moment, but I think it will be a three-to-four lap moment where the switch goes off. Sure, the guys that are good at managing tires and things like that will all have a little bit longer switch than others, but I just think if it happens during green, we are just going to come in and pit – I think – it just depends on how the cautions work out. It is going to depend on how long you are going to ask from those tires at the end of the race if you are saving them, and that is your only last remaining set, and you have 60 laps to go. That’s going to be a tall task, but I like my chances against anyone in that scenario.”

Do you think the weather will make changes to the tire plan tomorrow?

GABEHART: “I think the cooler weather played a factor at North Wilkesboro. At practice we saw one thing and certainly had a feeling going into the race that in those conditions we might see this and then we lived the race where it was a night race and cooled off and certainly felt differently about it afterwards. I don’t think this track is capable of that level of transformation from one condition to the next, but I do think until the lights turn on here at Richmond you won’t know what you have.”

For tomorrow, do you have an idea of when you put both sets of option tires on?

GABEHART: “I have a rough game plan. I have a rough idea of how most will tend to use them if they know when the cautions come out. And, again, depending on what their agenda is I do think you’ll see some cut off teams that may need to get a little desperate at the end of some of these stages to try to go grab some of those points, and I think that would be a wise move for some of them if they got the opportunity. But again, to win the race, I think you have to have them laying around as an option in stage 3.”

Do you feel like right now is the right time to introduce the option tire?

HAMLIN: “Well, we’ve done so many different tire tests and there’s only been a handful of cars out there so nothing replicates real world like the real world. And, so I think that they did it at North Wilkesboro just as a blind – they did do it during the tire test a little bit and they were wearing out extremely high. Then they put all the cars on the track and it’s just not as bad. Certainly, I think if they would’ve tried this tire at a tire test that they probably would’ve got 20 laps out of it, and it would’ve been roasted because there’s not enough tire rubber filling in the pores of the track to keep the wear down. I think almost have to have these real-life moments of trial and error to try it. And, certainly, this shows me personally that we can get a lot more aggressive with our compounds on these short track tires. I would’ve never thought they would’ve lasted 40 laps, truthfully. I think tomorrow there’s a chance they can go longer. I’m not sure. It could go the other way too if there’s more load. Who knows how this turns out, but I think it’s safer to do it now than probably in the Playoffs.”