Denny Hamlin picked up his third road course pole of the season on Saturday by going 125.298 mph in his No. 11 Toyota to net him the pole for Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN). He beat William Byron (124.961 mph) by .210-seconds to net his 40th career NASCAR Cup Series pole.
The question now is, can both capitalize on their front row starting spot?
- 11 of the last 12 winners have started in the top 3 Rows including the last 5 from the top 2 Rows.
- 16 of the last 18 have started in the top 10.
- Starting positions on road courses this season: 2nd (COTA), 8th (Sonoma), 3rd (Chicago), 1st (Indy).
Hamlin however has yet to have a top 10 finish in either of his previous road course poles. Byron was 22nd last year, has 1 top 10 finish on road courses this season and also just 1 top 5 finish in his last 10 races in general on the season.
Which is why we have to watch Michael McDowell (124.949 mph) who’ll start third in his No. 34 Ford. Last week’s winner won from Row 2 (4th) and also qualified third here last year. He’d finish sixth.
Rookie Ty Gibbs (124.890 mph) starts fourth in his No. 54 Toyota while two-time defending Watkins Glen winner, Kyle Larson (124.874 mph) rounded out the top five of the lineup.
Larson qualified 5th last weekend and now has a top six start in each of his last 8 Watkins Glen tries: 6th, 2nd, 2nd, 5th, 5th, 4th, 2nd and now 5th.
AJ Allmendinger (124.645 mph), Christopher Bell (124.395 mph), Tyler Reddick (124.187 mph), Kyle Busch (124.089 mph) and Corey LaJoie (123.835 mph) rounded out the final round qualifiers and will start 6th-10th respectively.
Chase Elliott was only 15th. Last weeks pole sitter Daniel Suarez will roll off 14th.
The Fords largely struggled again. McDowell (3rd) is the only driver in the top 10 of the starting lineup. SHR’s struggled the worst with starting 26-27-30-33.
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