Denny Hamlin wins pole for NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland

Denny Hamlin will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway in the first race at the Joliet, Ill., track since 2019. 

Hamlin put down a pole-winning lap of 30.296 seconds/178.241 miles per hour around the 1.5-mile venue on Saturday afternoon and watched on pit road as Kyle Larson fell only 0.001 seconds shy of matching his time.

"We got lucky these last 12 guys got stuck in the same and the track is definitely temperature-sensitive," Hamlin told TNT. "We hit our lap pretty decent. My goal was P12 today."

Hamlin had to go out early in the session after finishing 26th at Sonoma last week. The pole is his fourth of 2026 and the 52nd of his Cup career. 2026 is the fifth consecutive season in which Hamlin has won at least three poles. Hamlin enters Sunday as the Cup Series points leader by one point over second-place Tyler Reddick.

Larson, the defending Cup Series champion, will join Hamlin on the front row, with Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski and Ty Gibbs rounding out the top five starters. Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott and William Byron completed the top 10. 

Buescher, Keselowski and Wallace were all in the green coming out of Turn 4 on their laps but were unable to squeak past Hamlin. 

Notable qualifying results

Other notable qualifying efforts include Reddick in 13th, Ryan Blaney in 14th, Carson Hocevar in 15th, Corey Heim in 28th and Joey Logano in 31st. 

JJ Yeley (36th) ran the slowest lap of the session at 31.969 seconds/168.914 miles per hour. Cody Ware and Michael McDowell will start 37th and 38th, respectively, on Sunday, as they did not post a time. 

Sunday's eero 400 at Chicagoland will go green shortly after 6 p.m. ET, with coverage on TNT, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Pre-race coverage will begin at 5 p.m. ET on TNT and MRN.