Nascar Race Today

Congrats to @dennyhamlin & @JoeGibbsRacing for winning the pole for Sunday's #NASCAR race at @BMSupdates! http://ift.tt/1oaU4zq

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BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Denny Hamlin said during SpeedWeeks, as he was winning the Sprint Unlimited and a 150-mile qualifying race, that this was all leading up to something. His win in the Sprint Cup season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway the previous season had sent him into the offseason with a burst of momentum after an accident at Auto Club Speedway cost him four races and a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Hamlin's offseason testing program with Joe Gibbs Racing had left him encouraged. His team, he asserted, would be heard from in the first weeks of the season.

A week before returning to the track where his 2013 unraveled, Hamlin took another step toward making good on his prediction on Friday. Like Brad Keselowski last week, he can complete his redemption campaign before it barely gets started.

Using just one qualifying run in both the 30-minute first session and 10-minute knockout round, Hamlin set a new track record in winning the pole for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Hamlin traversed the .533-mile concrete track at 129.991 mph, smashing teammate Kyle Busch's year-old record of 129.535.

"Obviously this is a great start to the weekend at a track where we believe it's a great opportunity for us to get a win and put ourselves in a Chase spot," said Hamlin, who won the Bristol summer race in 2012.

Keselowski, the 2012 champion who missed the Chase last year but won last week at Las Vegas, made a late run to jump from seventh to second at 129.965, followed by Matt Kenseth (129.073), Joey Logano (128.830), and Marcos Ambrose (128.727).

Friday marked the implementation of a tweak to NASCAR's new qualifying format, allowing teams to cool their engines on pit road with mobile units rather than on the race track with low-speed laps. Several drivers had warned of the peril in the old practice, and the sanctioning body relented this week heading to the confines of Bristol.

Drivers unilaterally approved of the change. Points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., who starts 14th, called it "much better."

"That rule change has made qualifying even better," Keselowski said. "It has removed danger and replaced it with opportunity."

The modification rid the track of traffic-clogging cars but had the ancillary effect of allowing teams qualifying runs with cooling times drastically reduced. Although Hamlin made just one run in each of the two group sessions, most of the rest of the field, including Keselowski made multiple attempts to abscond with the pole.

Hamlin's blistering lap and concise approach held, though. He made just one run in each of the two sessions after undertaking one mock run in practice held. Keselowski, fastest in the first session, was impressed.

"I feel like we did what we were supposed to do to be able to go out there and give it a shot for the pole," Keselowski said. "Really and honestly Denny's car has been a little faster than ours today. I felt like when we won the first session I'm like, 'OK, we found something between practice and qualifying,' so I felt pretty good about it.

"Denny's strategy was pretty good. I think watching what they did in between two runs was pretty impressive to me. It was a huge pickup for them."

A win on Sunday for Hamlin would mark a bigger pick-up, a nearly certain bid in the 16-driver Chase field.

Contributor, espnW.com