Denny Hamlin wins pole position for NASCAR's return to Chicagoland Speedway

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JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — Denny Hamlin has the pole position for a NASCAR Cup Series race. Again.

Hamlin had a lap time of 30.296 seconds at 178.241 mph on Saturday in qualifying for the first Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway in seven years. It was just enough to edge Kyle Larson in second at 30.297 seconds and 178.235 mph in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“We got very fortunate that the last 12 cars had full sun, 100% sun (over the track),” Hamlin said. “The last few had probably like 90%, but that was, I think, the deciding factor. As we saw right after I went, the track, it definitely got hotter, and it seemed like the corner speeds of those guys started to slow down.”

Larson's car failed inspection twice, leading to the ejection of car chief Jesse Saunders for the rest of the weekend. His team also lost pit-stall selection.

The 45-year-old Hamlin, a 2015 winner at Chicagoland, is going for his fifth victory this season. He arrived at Chicagoland with a one-point lead over 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick for the top spot in the Cup Series standings. Hamlin co-owns 23XI Racing with NBA legend Michael Jordan.

It was Hamlin's third straight pole on an oval track. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has four poles this season in his No. 11 Toyota and 52 for his career, snapping a tie with Ryan Newman for ninth on the NASCAR list.

“They did a really good job with my car overnight,” Hamlin said. “We worked for a long time with the team, trying to figure out what I need to go faster and execute around here.”

Larson posted his 12th top-10 start this year and his fourth in seven races at Chicagoland Speedway. He is looking to stop a 42-race drought going back to his win at Kansas in May 2025.

Larson was followed by RFK Racing drivers Chris Buescher (178.153 mph) and Brad Keselowski (178.089 mph). It was the first time that RFK had two cars qualify in the top five since Darlington in May 2024, according to NASCAR Insights.

Ty Gibbs (178.083 mph) rounded out the top five for Sunday's race, followed by Christopher Bell (177.643 mph) and Chase Briscoe (177.637 mph). Connor Zilisch was the fastest qualifying rookie at 21st.

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