Hometown hero Denny Hamlin lands pole at Richmond

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 (Va.) Raceway (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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 three-quarter mile track for Hamlin, who grew up in the Richmond area and is the hometown favourite 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 12th in the Playoff standings 108 points up on the field with the top 16 drivers advancing to the 10-race championship.

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.