After Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Michigan International Speedway, NASCAR’s 50-50 club has a seventh member: Denny Hamlin.
The Chesterfield, Virginia-native was the 37th and final driver to hit the racetrack at the two-mile racetrack on Saturday, and vaulted to the top of the speed charts, posting a lap time of 36.901 seconds (195.117mph).
It’s the 50th career pole position for Hamlin, two of which have now come at the Brooklyn, Michigan racetrack. The 45-year-old driver is the defending winner of the FireKeepers Casino 400.
Hamlin joins Richard Petty, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison, and Denny Hamlin as drivers who have won 50 (or more) NASCAR Cup Series events and 50 (or more) NASCAR Cup Series poles.
“That’s awesome,” Hamlin said in a post-qualifying press conference. “I don’t know, those are legends and then there’s me.”
However, Hamlin will NOT be leading the field to the green flag. In practice on Saturday, the No. 11 National Debt Relief Toyota Camry XSE had a flat tire and damaged the diffuser on his Joe Gibbs Racing machine. So, fixing the damage counts as an unapproved adjustment and will send the polesitter to the rear.
Carson Hocevar, a native of Portage, Michigan, will be the control car for the initial start of Sunday’s event. Hocevar, driving the No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet, qualified in second place for Spire Motorsports.
Tyler Reddick (the third-place qualifier) will start on the front row alongside Hocevar. Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe, teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing, qualified fourth and fifth. Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, William Byron, and Erik Jones rounded out the top-10.
Other notable drivers starting outside the top-10 at Michigan include Bubba Wallace (13th), Chris Buescher (14th), Joey Logano (18th), Ryan Blaney (19th), Brad Keselowski (26th), Ryan Preece (27th), Alex Bowman (29th), Shane Van Gisbergen (30th), Austin Cindric (31st), Ross Chastain (32nd), Connor Zilisch (34th).
Josh Berry was the only driver to not post a qualifying lap after spinning off Turn 4 in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
The FireKeepers Casino 400 will take place Sunday, June 7, at 3:00 PM ET on Prime Video.
Photo: Lumen Digital Agency for Toyota Racing
