Denny Hamlin wins pole for NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover

Zane Smith's pit crew was the fastest at Dover Motor Speedway in Saturday's Mechanix Pit Crew Challenge, but Denny Hamlin will start on the pole for Sunday's NASCAR All-Star Race. 

Hamlin will lead the field of 36 drivers to the green flag for the first 75-lap segment of Sunday's race before the running order is inverted to start the second stage. Ten drivers will be eliminated after Lap 150, leaving only 26 to contest the final 200 laps for $1 million. 

Hamlin won the pole with a time of 109.298 seconds on a qualifying run that included a normal lap at speed, a pit stop and a dash back to the checkered — and did so despite spinning out on the apron as he tried to warm his tires on his out lap.

"The lap was still competitive even though I didn't do a great job with the tires on the warm-up there," Hamlin told Fox Sports. "We got another P1. I liked our car yesterday. Felt like we were pretty strong. Could be a good weekend."

Smith's pit crew will take home $100,000 for making the fastest pit stop during the session, while Smith will start Sunday's race in 25th. 

Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, Ross Chastain and William Byron rounded out the top five, with Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Austin Cindric completed the top 10. 

How qualifying went down

Other notable qualifying efforts include Kyle Busch in 11th, Tyler Reddick in 14th, Carson Hocevar in 24th, Kyle Larson in 29th and Chase Elliott in 31st. Larson initially went to the top of the board before being penalized for speeding on pit road. 

Connor Zilisch spun making his way to pit road, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun on the exit of turn 4 but kept his car off the wall. Daniel Suarez was third-quickest when he made his lap but crashed in turn 1 after his right-front tire came off. Suarez was also dealt a penalty but will likely have to go to a back-up car for Sunday.

Electrical issues prevented AJ Allmendinger's car from starting. Allmendinger did not make a qualifying attempt. John Hunter Nemechek's time was also voided after his crew failed to get his left-front tire secure, which forced Nemechek to not post a time. 

Nemechek, Stenhouse, Allmendinger and Suarez will start 33rd, 34th, 35th and 36th, respectively, on Sunday. Chris Buescher (32nd) had the slowest time of any driver to officially post a lap at 119.950 seconds. 

The NASCAR All-Star Race will go green shortly after 1 p.m. ET Sunday, with coverage on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Pre-race coverage will begin at noon ET on FS1 and MRN.