Dialing it in: Denny wins pole in the desert for final Eliminator race
Denny Hamlin surprised the field and himself by winning the pole for Sunday's Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, the final race in the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Hamlin, who comes into Sunday's race tied for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points lead with Joey Logano, had a best lap of 142.113 miles per hour in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Friday's qualifying. Brad Keselowski, who ran 142.079 mph in his No. 2 Penske Racing Ford, will start on the outside of Row 1.
On Row 2 will be Kevin Harvick, winner of three of the past four races at Phoenix, in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet and Logano in a second Penske Ford.
Row 3 was all JGR Toyotas, with Matt Kenseth qualifying fifth ahead of Kyle Busch.
Completing the top 10 were Jeff Gordon, Kyle Larson, Brian Vickers and Kurt Busch.
But the session belonged to Hamlin, who said he didn't think he had a shot at the pole.
“I feel great, obviously,” said Hamlin, the only one of the eight championship contenders without at least one top-five finish in the Chase.
Hamlin said the pole was “definitely out of the blue from my perspective. I didn't think we had a pole-winning car by any means.”
The pole was the third of the season for Hamlin, and his 20th in 325 career starts.
And it turned out to be better than he thought he was going to do. “I thought (qualifying in the) top eight would have be a huge bonus,” said Hamlin. “That was a little unexpected but showed us that we had speed in our car. We just have to figure out how to get it optimized for 312 laps around here.”
Keselowski, meanwhile, qualified on the front row for the 12th time this season, but only the second time in the Chase. “This is a really intense qualifying format,” said Keselowski. “… I wanted to be on the pole. We were a little off but close.”
Keselowski said Harvick's car was the one to beat on Sunday and Harvick affirmed that he was pleased with the speed in his car.
“We come here expecting to win every time we're at this race track,” Harvick said.
Six of the eight championship contenders advanced out of the first of two rounds of qualifying, with only Carl Edwards (13th) and Ryan Newman (20th) the only two who didn't crack the top 12.
Other drivers who didn't make it out of Round 1 included Jimmie Johnson (15th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (16th) and Danica Patrick (32nd).
Clay Rogers was the only driver who failed to qualify.
VIDEO: A look back at Denny Hamlin's rookie Sprint Cup season