It’s been a recurring theme in the NASCAR Cup Series in recent weeks. Denny Hamlin is out front.
The veteran driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota claimed his fourth Busch Light Pole position of the season Saturday afternoon at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA (1 p.m. ET on Prime Video, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Of note, with poor weather expected later Sunday afternoon, the green flag start time (1 p.m.) has been moved up two hours earlier than its originally scheduled time.
This marks the 64th pole position of Hamlin’s career and comes as the popular veteran is attempting to win three consecutive races for the first time in his celebrated career after victories the last two weeks in Nashville and Michigan.
He was the last driver to take to the track in Saturday’s qualifying session and just nudged Hendrick Motorsports’ driver Kyle Larson from the top position in the final minutes – Hamlin’s lap of 173.250 mph around the 2.5-mile triangular-shaped Pocono track was .057-second quicker than Larson’s best.
“Certainly had the grip, this whole team just did a great job with adjustments, making it a little better from practice, I didn’t execute a very good lap there in Turn 2, but overall I thought I hit [turns] three and one pretty decent – just good enough,” Hamlin said.
He acknowledged he and the team are certainly on a hot streak at the moment with wins in the non-points paying All-Star Race four weeks ago plus the two victories in the last two weeks. The effort has helped Hamlin cut 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick’s 100-plus point advantage over him atop the standings to only 51 points heading into Pocono, a place Hamlin has won a record seven times.
“It’s certainly going well and confidence is up with these guys [on the team] that every time I enter a corner at about 200, I know they’ve built me a car that’s going to stick,” Hamlin said, acknowledging his three-in-a-row opportunity.
“This is the best shot for sure, we’ve 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.”
Starting behind Hamlin and Larson are Daniel Suarez in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and Hamlin’s JGR teammates Ty Gibbs (No. 54 Toyota) and defending race winner Chase Briscoe (No. 19 Toyota).
Chris Buescher, who won his first career NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono in 2016, qualified sixth – his No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford the first Ford on the grid. Legacy Motor Club teammates Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek will start their Toyotas seventh and eighth. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron (No. 24 Chevrolet) and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney (No. 12 Ford) – who also earned his first career series win at Pocono in 2017 – round out the top-10 on the grid.
Of note, 23XI Racing’s Reddick will roll of 15th and his teammate, Bubba Wallace, will start from the rear of the field after a qualifying session accident. RFK owner-driver Brad Keselowski had engine trouble in the session and will start alongside Wallace on the last row.
NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA
Pocono Raceway
Long Pond, Pennsylvania
Saturday, June 13, 2026
1. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 173.250 mph.
2. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 173.067 mph.
3. (7) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 172.881 mph.
4. (54) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 172.771 mph.
5. (19) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 172.639 mph.
6. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 172.493 mph.
7. (43) Erik Jones, Toyota, 172.450 mph.
8. (42) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 172.160 mph.
9. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 171.982 mph.
10. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 171.867 mph.
11. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 171.536 mph.
12. (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 171.481 mph.
13. (71) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 171.468 mph.
14. (33) Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, 171.308 mph.
15. (41) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 171.210 mph.
16. (45) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 171.207 mph.
17. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 171.178 mph.
18. (38) Zane Smith, Ford, 171.132 mph.
19. (16) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 171.090 mph.
20. (21) Josh Berry, Ford, 171.015 mph.
21. (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 170.921 mph.
22. (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 170.700 mph.
23. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 170.687 mph.
24. (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 170.681 mph.
25. (35) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 170.396 mph.
26. (77) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 170.332 mph.
27. (10) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 170.264 mph.
28. (88) Connor Zilisch #, Chevrolet, 169.975 mph.
29. (34) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 169.645 mph.
30. (4) Noah Gragson, Ford, 169.565 mph.
31. (97) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 169.202 mph.
32. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 169.128 mph.
33. (51) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 168.262 mph.
34. (78) Daniel Dye(i), Chevrolet, 167.779 mph.
35. (60) Ryan Preece, Ford, 167.532 mph.
36. (62) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 166.015 mph.
37. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 126.518 mph.
38. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
–NASCAR Wire Service
