MADISON, Ill. — Denny Hamlin scored his second consecutive pole of the Cup playoffs and will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway (3 p.m. ET on USA Network).
Hamlin earned his 46th career Cup pole with a lap of 139.190 mph.
“We were able to, very similarly to last week, make some great adjustments from where we were in practice –- and again, there is so much that is different from practice to qualifying when you are going for one lap — air pressures at a track like this is dramatically different, certainly, the intensity from which I drive is a lot different in practice than qualifying,” Hamlin said.
“”They gave me all of the adjustments that I needed to have a really good handling car there and we were able to capitalize on it.”
Hamlin will be joined on the front row by Kyle Larson, who took part in the June tire test at this 1.25-mile track near St. Louis. Larson qualified with a lap of 139.099 mph.
Chase Briscoe, who won last weekend’s playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, qualified third with a lap of 138.902 mph. Ross Chastain (138.855 mph) qualified fourth and Ryan Blaney (138.752) will start fifth.
Playoff drivers took the top nine spots in qualifying. The first non-playoff driver is Zane Smith, who qualified 10th with a lap of 137.724 mph.
Alex Bowman, who is 19 points below the cutline, is the playoff driver with the worst starting spot. He qualified 25th with a lap of 136.343 mph after his car got loose on his run. Bowman was the only playoff driver not to qualify in the top 20.
Josh Berry, who also is 19 points below the cutline, qualified 12th at 137.623 mph. Austin Dillon, who is eight points below the cutline, will start 15th after a lap of 137.375 mph.
Joey Logano, three points below the cutline, will start 13th after a lap of 137.535 mph. Shane van Gisbergen, who holds the final transfer spot, will start 18th with a lap of 137.342 mph.
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