Three-time Dover winner Denny Hamlin will lead the field to green in Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at The Monster Mile, but after seeing the beginning of his qualifying run, you’re going to wonder how that is possible.
The 61-time NASCAR Cup Series race-winner pulled his No. 11 Progressive-sponsored Toyota Camry XSE out of the garage to begin his qualifying lap, and while still on the apron in Turn 1, spun around.
Hamlin sustained no damage, his tires weren’t flat at all, and his run hadn’t even technically started yet, so the Chesterfield, Virginia-native just kept on going as if nothing happened, and moments later, jumped to the top of the board.
“It was quite eventful, for sure,” Hamlin said after qualifying. “I was trying to get an extra rep there on the bottom. I saw so many guys having issues leaving pit road, so I tried to get an extra rep there, and it just, I mean, I just spun out. I don’t know. I didn’t think I was being that aggressive, but spun out.”
This season, the format consisted of three laps around the one-mile Dover Motor Speedway and a four-tire pit stop — which required drivers to get to the pits from a full-speed qualifying lap. As you can imagine, that created a lot of havoc and shuffled up the qualifying order.
“I think [this format] really challenges you. I mean, this is my first — I think the pole I had before was because of the pit crew, if I remember right. I’ve never been close when it comes to qualifying in this type of format towards the front; it’s just in my DNA. I’m a little conservative in all aspects. I’m never usually P1 in any metric of coming to pit road, leaving pit road, or rolling.”
Hamlin completed his run in 1 minute, 49.298 seconds, a tenth and a half quicker than Brad Keselowski, who won the pole for the NASCAR All-Star Race last season at North Wilkesboro Speedway in a similar format.
LEGACY MOTOR CLUB’s Erik Jones set the benchmark for much of the qualifying session on Saturday, and will be the highest starting driver not already locked into the NASCAR All-Star Race, rolling from third.
Ross Chastain will start fourth, with William Byron rounding out the top-five. Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs, and Austin Cindric completed the top-10.
Of the 36 NASCAR Cup Series teams present at Dover Motor Speedway this weekend, 13 of them had issues during this qualifying, whether it be speeding penalties, slow pit stops, or problems entering pit road.
HYAK Motorsports didn’t even have the opportunity to compete in the Pit Crew Challenge portion of the event, after Stenhouse lost control of his No. 47 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 off Turn 4, making an absolutely bonkers save that resembled that of Jimmie Johnson in the mid-2000s.
That wasn’t the only on-track incident, either… Daniel Suarez slammed the SAFER Barrier in Turn 1 after his qualifying run, when the right-front wheel came loose as the No. 7 Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation Chevrolet went hurdling into Turn 1. Suarez was ranked inside the top-10 overall, having completed his run before the tire became detached, but his time was disallowed.
Chris Buescher had an identical type of problem as eventual polesitter Denny Hamlin had on Saturday, with the main difference being that the RFK Racing driver spun on his qualifying run — resulting in a massive loss of time and a blend line penalty.
Surprisingly, considering Dover Motor Speedway has one of the toughest pit lanes to get on under green-flag conditions, there was only one incident entering the pits, and that was courtesy of rookie Connor Zilisch, who was coming in hot at pit entry and looped his No. 88 Jockey Chevrolet around, and somehow, narrowly avoided the safety barrels.
Front Row Motorsports (No. 38) won the Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge with Zane Smith, but will qualify 25th, after being assessed a 10-second penalty for speeding on pit road. Had Smith not received the penalty, he would have edged Hamlin for the pole position.
Smith was joined by Ryan Preece, Connor Zilisch, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell, Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, and John Hunter Nemechek as drivers who sustained some kind of pit road penalty. Elliott and Blaney had their Pit Crew Challenge times disallowed after a safety violation (Blaney) and an uncontrolled tire (Elliott).
The NASCAR All-Star Race will take place Sunday, May 17, at 1:00 PM ET on FS1.
Photo: Rusty Jones, Lumen Digital Agency for Toyota Racing
