Denny Hamlin nabs 51st Cup career pole at Pocono

Denny Hamlin mastered qualifying for a third consecutive weekend by notching the Busch Light Pole Award for the Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on Saturday, June 13.

The event’s starting lineup was determined through an on-track qualifying session that consisted of a single-truck, single-lap qualifying format. During the session, each of the competitors vying for starting spots cycled around Pocono Raceway once to post the fastest lap amongst one another. The competitor who posted the single fastest lap was awarded the pole position.

In Saturday’s qualifying session, Hamlin, who was the second-fastest overall competitor in practice that occurred before on-track qualifying, posted his qualifying lap at 173.250 mph in 51.948 seconds. Hamlin’s lap was enough for the three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, to claim the top-starting spot of Sunday’s main event at the Tricky Triangle in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.

With the pole, Hamlin notched his 51st NASCAR Cup Series career pole for his 737th start, and he tied Ryan Newman for ninth place on the all-time Cup pole list. He also achieved his sixth pole at Pocono Raceway and his third of the 2026 season.

With qualifications complete, Hamlin will strive to become the first competitor to win three consecutive Cup Series events since his 23XI Racing competitor and points leader, Tyler Reddick, achieved the latest feat during the first three events of this season. It would also mark Hamlin’s first time winning three consecutive Cup events in his illustrious career.

“[Our latest runs] are certainly going well, and confidence is up with these guys that every time I enter a corner at about 200 [mph] that they built me a car that’s gonna stick,” Hamlin said. “[Pocono] is the best shot [to win three in a row], for sure. We got a little work to do on the car overnight to get it to be a race winner, but I feel like we’re in that box where we need to be and we’ll fine-tune it from here.”

Hamlin will share the front row with Kyle Larson, the latter of whom will attempt to win at Pocono for the first time in his 19th start at the Tricky Triangle. Larson, who is also seeking his first victory of the 2026 season, posted his fastest lap at 173.067 mph in 52.003 seconds. Daniel Suarez, who notched his first Cup career pole at Pocono in 2018, will start in third place ahead of Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe. Chris Buescher, Erik Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, William Byron and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10 of the starting grid, respectively.

Notably, Bubba Wallace will start at the tail end of the field in 38th place after he spun just past the second turn and clipped both the outside and inside walls. Carson Hocevar smacked the outside wall after he also got loose just past the second turn. But he managed to continue to race straight and will start in 26th place. Brad Keselowski will start in 37th place due to an engine issue during qualifying. Christopher Bell, who is racing with a fractured left wrist following a hard late-race accident last weekend at Michigan International Speedway, qualified in 22nd place. He will have Brandon Jones as a standby competitor in the event Bell opts to be relieved by Jones during Sunday’s Pocono event.

With 38 competitors vying for 38 starting spots, all made the main event.

Pocono – Qualifying Position, Best Speed, Best Time:

1. Denny Hamlin, 173.250 mph, 51.948 seconds
2. Kyle Larson, 173.067 mph, 52.003 seconds
3. Daniel Suarez, 172.881 mph, 52.059 seconds
4. Ty Gibbs, 172.771 mph, 52.092 seconds
5. Chase Briscoe, 172.639 mph, 52.132 seconds
6. Chris Buescher, 172.493 ph, 52.176 seconds
7. Erik Jones, 172.450 mph, 52.189 seconds
8. John Hunter Nemechek. 172.982 mph, 52.277 seconds
9. William Byron, 171.982 mph, 52.331 seconds
10. Ryan Blaney, 171.867 mph, 52.366 seconds
11. Joey Logano, 171.635 mph, 52.467 seconds
12. Alex Bowman, 171.481 mph, 52.484 seconds
13. Michael McDowell, 171.468 mph, 52.488 seconds
14. Austin Hill, 171.308 mph, 52.537 seconds
15. Cole Custer, 171.210 mph, 52.567 seconds
16. Tyler Reddick, 171.207 mph, 52.568 seconds
17. Austin Cindric, 171.178 mph, 52.577 seconds
18. Zane Smith, 171.132 mph, 52.591 seconds
19. AJ Allmendinger, 171.090 mph, 52.604 seconds.
20. Josh Berry, 171.015 mph, 52.627 seconds
21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 170.921 mph, 52.656 seconds
22. Christopher Bell, 170.700 mph, 52.724 seconds
23. Chase Elliott, 170.687 mph, 52.728 seconds
24. Ross Chaste, 170.681 mph, 52.730 seconds
25. Riley Herbst, 170.396 mph, 52.818 seconds
26. Carson Hocevar, 170.332 mph, 52.838 seconds
27. Ty Dillon, 170.264 mph, 52.958 seconds
28. Connor Zilisch, 169.975 mph, 52.949 seconds
29. Todd Gilliland, 169.645 mph, 53.052 seconds
30. Noah Gragson, 159.565 mph, 53.077 seconds
31. Shane van Gisbergen, 169.202 mph, 53.191 seconds
32. Austin Dillon, 169.128 mph, 53.214 seconds
33. Cody Ware, 168.262 mph, 53.488 seconds
34. Daniel Dye, 167.779 mph, 53.642 seconds
35. Ryan Preece, 167.532 mph, 53.721 seconds
36. Casey Mears, 166.015 mph, 54.212 seconds
37. Brad Keselowski, 126.518 mph, 71.136 seconds
38. Bubba Wallace, 0.000 mph, 0.000 seconds.

The 2026 Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway is scheduled to occur on Sunday, June 14, at 1 p.m. ET on Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.