Denny Hamlin earns Southern 500 pole as playoff drivers dominate

In his 19th playoff appearance,  Denny Hamlin earned pole position with a speedy 28.694s lap. He will share the front row with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe, who was attempting’ to sweep qualifying at all four crown jewel races this year. He ended up 0.021s shy of accomplishing that feat, telling truTV: “that one will sting for a while” after just missing out.

“It turned,” smiled Hamlin after qualifying. “We struggled with the balance all through race practice, so we made some good adjustments there to go one lap. I felt like it was really good. This Toyota did everything I needed it to do. It’s awesome to come here and get a pole.”

He went on to admit that the No. 11 team will have to “work on it” if he wants to convert this qualifying effort to a race win on Sunday. “Starting up front is certainly a big advantage. We’ll go back, reset tonight, and we’ll be stronger tomorrow.”

Playoff underdog Josh Berry impressed, putting the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford third on the grid. Tyler Reddick was fourth and Kyle Larson led the way for Hendrick Motorsports in fifth.

Ross Chastain qualified sixth, Christopher Bell seventh, Bubba Wallace eighth, Austin Dillon ninth, and Austin Cindric tenth.

Outside the top ten, William Byron timed in 11th, Ryan Blaney 12th, Joey Logano 14th, and Shane van Gisbergen 20th.

But the two slowest playoff drivers both came from HMS with Chase Elliott 21st and Alex Bowman 29th — who is last in the standings — 29th.

Halfway through qualifying, it was Justin Haley who set the pace for Spire Motorsports with a 29.060s lap. One week ago, he earned his best finish of the year at Daytona, placing a close third in a last-ditch effort to win his way into the Playoffs. He ended up being the ‘best of the rest’ in 13th, leading the non-playoff drivers.

All of the title contenders go out at the end of qualifying during the final ten races of the year. Cindric was the first of those 16 drivers out on track, and he went to the top of the charts. Wallace was the first driver to break into the 28s, but he was knocked off the provisional pole soon after by his 23XI Racing teammate, Reddick.

Then came Briscoe, who went P1 with a blisteringly fast lap. But despite winning pole position for this year’s Daytona 500, Coca Cola 600, and Brickyard 400, he was not going to be able to add the Southern 500 for a complete sweep. Close, but…

The veteran Hamlin used a fantastic run out of Turn 4 to snatch the top spot away, meaning for the first time since 2018, he’ll lead the field to green with pole position in the 2025 Southern 500.