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While Denny Hamlin was concentrating on breaking the track record, in qualifying at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, his motivation was getting back into Chase contention.
Driving a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Hamlin broke the track record with a speed of 195.624 mph around one-and-a-half mile oval. He knocked the Chevrolet driven by Kurt Busch off of the provisional pole.
Shrugging off the effects of a fractured vertebra, suffered at Auto Club Speedway earlier this year, Hamlin thought a pole was good but only just good enough. "We have a mission ahead, and that's to try and make the Chase," said Hamlin.
In order to make sure that happens he'd likely need to win two races and advance to the top 20 in the points to earn a Wild Card entry into NASCAR's version of the "The best way to do that is to win races, and to win races, you're going to have to have every advantage you can -- one of them being the No. 1 pit stall (granted to the pole-winner).”
Since it's NASCAR's longest race, at 600 miles, good pit stops will take on added importance. Having the choice of a pit stall helps determine where a driver might blast out off on restarts.
Hamlin is currently 27th in the standings 61 points out of 20th place after missing four races due to his back injury.
Kurt Busch, who has been working on restoring his stature in the NASCAR with some very good runs but no wins, said "I really just committed to running the best lap I could, pushing every envelope that I normally don't push. Obviously, it paid off with a big reward."
Despite being faster than 41 cars, in the 43-car field, Busch said “I didn't do my job, but my team is doing an incredible job with fast cars week in and week out. I told them we had a pole-winning car today. We didn't have a pole-winning draw as far as going out in the mid-range, but it's part of the game. You have to have a pole-winning car and then if you get a pole-winning draw, like Denny did to go out late, you want to deliver. And so he did.”
The Toyota's of Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, and Clint Bowyer completed a Toyota sweep of third through fifth.
Sunday's race starts at 7PM EDT.
Driving a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Hamlin broke the track record with a speed of 195.624 mph around one-and-a-half mile oval. He knocked the Chevrolet driven by Kurt Busch off of the provisional pole.
Shrugging off the effects of a fractured vertebra, suffered at Auto Club Speedway earlier this year, Hamlin thought a pole was good but only just good enough. "We have a mission ahead, and that's to try and make the Chase," said Hamlin.
In order to make sure that happens he'd likely need to win two races and advance to the top 20 in the points to earn a Wild Card entry into NASCAR's version of the "The best way to do that is to win races, and to win races, you're going to have to have every advantage you can -- one of them being the No. 1 pit stall (granted to the pole-winner).”
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| Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. (Photo: NASCAR) |
Since it's NASCAR's longest race, at 600 miles, good pit stops will take on added importance. Having the choice of a pit stall helps determine where a driver might blast out off on restarts.
Hamlin is currently 27th in the standings 61 points out of 20th place after missing four races due to his back injury.
Kurt Busch, who has been working on restoring his stature in the NASCAR with some very good runs but no wins, said "I really just committed to running the best lap I could, pushing every envelope that I normally don't push. Obviously, it paid off with a big reward."
Despite being faster than 41 cars, in the 43-car field, Busch said “I didn't do my job, but my team is doing an incredible job with fast cars week in and week out. I told them we had a pole-winning car today. We didn't have a pole-winning draw as far as going out in the mid-range, but it's part of the game. You have to have a pole-winning car and then if you get a pole-winning draw, like Denny did to go out late, you want to deliver. And so he did.”
The Toyota's of Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, and Clint Bowyer completed a Toyota sweep of third through fifth.
Sunday's race starts at 7PM EDT.