In the second of three consecutive mile-and-a-half racetracks in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase, Joe Gibbs Racing has made a STATEMENT, sweeping the top-four in qualifying for Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 National Debt Relief Toyota Camry XSE, laid down a heater in single-vehicle qualifying for Sunday’s fifth race of the Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series title, posting a lap time of 28.910 seconds (186.787mph) to be the quickest of 36 drivers.
Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell, and Chase Briscoe were second, third, and fourth in the qualifying order and were all separated by just over a tenth of a second. Tyler Reddick and 23XI Racing, an alliance partner to Joe Gibbs Racing, rounded out the top-five in the No. 45 Toyota Camry XSE.
“It certainly is [an advantage],” said Hamlin. “I think we’ll be in traffic a little more at this racetrack than historically; we’re in traffic more here than Kansas. I talked about this earlier; this track is pretty narrow. The groove in (turns one and two is, like, two and a half cars wide. So, there’s not a whole lot of escaping, the dirty air that does come from the lead car. So, I just hope we’re the ones putting off that wake, but you just never know this sport is week by week, and we’re all guilty of overreacting on Mondays about what we just saw over the weekend, but, you know, the 5 (Kyle Larson) car could easily just drive right up through there and pass us and win the race again. You never know, or we could do the same thing he did last week.”
Following a Toyota Racing USA sweep of the top-five is NASCAR Cup Series points leader and winner last weekend at Kansas Speedway, Kyle Larson, who was sixth fastest in time trials. Austin Cindric was seventh, with William Byron, Bubba Wallace, and Carson Hocevar rounding out the top-10.
Other drivers in the Chase that will start Sunday’s race from outside the top-10 include Daniel Suarez in 11th, Ryan Preece in 12th, Chase Elliott in 13th, Chris Buescher in 14th, and then Team Penske drivers Ryan Blaney in 20th and Joey Logano in 23rd.
Noah Gragson and Josh Berry will start at the rear of the field, in backup cars, after crashing hard in practice for the NASCAR Cup Series, both blowing left-rear tires.
The South Point 400 will take place Sunday, October 4 at 5:30 PM ET on USA Sports.
