The Round of 16 begins this weekend for the NASCAR Cup Series, with Darlington Raceway the cathedral for the first race of the playoffs. Denny Hamlin will start on the pole after pacing the field during qualifying on Saturday.
In the spring iteration of NASCAR’s trip to The Lady in Black, Hamlin got to Victory Lane, so his pole doesn’t exactly come as a surprise. His teammate, Chase Briscoe, won this race in 2024, and both drivers will be pining for the win from the front-row on Sunday, as he qualified P2 on Saturday.
All in all, this will be Hamlin’s 27th time racing at Darlington. He has five wins at the track, but it remains to be seen if he can start the playoffs with a sweep of The Lady in Black this season. Check out the full starting grid below.
P1. Denny Hamlin
P2. Chase Briscoe
P3. Josh Berry
P4. Tyler Reddick
P5. Kyle Larson
P6. Ross Chastain
P7. Christopher Bell
P8. Bubba Wallace
P9. Austin Dillon
P10. Austin Cindric
P11. William Byron
P12. Ryan Blaney
P13. Justin Haley
P14. Joey Logano
P15. Chris Buescher
P16. Ty Gibbs
P17. Daniel Suarez
P18. Cole Custer
P19. Erik Jones
P20. Shane van Gisbergen
P21. Chase Elliott
P22. AJ Allmendinger
P23. Kyle Busch
P24. Zane Smith
P25. Michael McDowell
P26. Carson Hocevar
P27. Ryan Preece
P28. Todd Gilliland
P29. Alex Bowman
P30. John H. Nemechek
P31. Ty Dillon
P32. Brad Keselowski
P33. Riley Herbst
P34. Noah Gragson
P35. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
P36. Cody Ware
P37. Derek Kraus
P38. Timmy Hill
As you can see, the first 12 in qualifying all made the playoffs, with Justin Haley the first non-playoff driver in P13. The most surprising moment of the morning might’ve come from Shane van Gisbergen, as he qualified P20 — ahead of drivers like Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and Brad Keselowski.
Hamlin will lead them to green at approximately 6:05 p.m ET tomorrow evening. The NASCAR playoffs are starting off with a bang, as this weekend’s race at Darlington should be a can’t-miss event.
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