Denny Hamlin nabbed his second pole of the season after laying down a time of 171.381 mph at Darlington Raceway.
It’s a fast start for the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 team as the playoffs get underway in Darlington, as Hamlin comes into the Cup Series playoffs with 29 bonus points and a 23-point gap above the cut line.
Hamlin will start alongside his JGR teammate Chase Briscoe when the field comes to the green in tomorrow’s (Aug. 31) race.
Playoff drivers make up the rest of the top 10 starting positions, with Josh Berry and Tyler Reddick starting on row two. Kyle Larson rounds out the top five with Ross Chastain alongside him.
Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace placed their cars in seventh and eighth, respectively, while a pair of Austin’s make up the rest of the top 10, with Dillon rolling off ninth and Cindric starting 10th.
The rest of the playoff drivers will come from deeper in the field in tomorrow’s race. William Byron starts 11th, Ryan Blaney will come from 12th, Joey Logano will roll off 16th and Shane van Gisbergen rounds out the drivers in the top 20.
Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman are the only playoff cars who qualified outside of the top 20, and will start 21st and 29th, respectively.
All 38 Cup cars that qualified made the show and will start the Cook Out Southern 500.
The playoff opener for the NASCAR Cup Series commences on Sunday, Aug. 31 at 6 p.m. ET on USA Network.
Thomas is in his first year covering NASCAR at Frontstretch. A Bay Area NASCAR fan for over 15+ years, he found his love for the sport through Jeff Gordon.
Thomas has enjoyed several trips to Sonoma Raceway in his time and currently covers college football in the Bay Area, also writing about the California Golden Bears.