FONTANA, Calif. — Denny Hamlin streaked around 2-mile Auto Club Speedway in 39.158 seconds (183.870 mph) to win the pole for Sunday’s Pepsi 500 in decisive fashion.
The third driver to make a qualifying attempt, Hamlin posted his lap and waited as the top three drivers in Friday’s practice session (speeds) — Juan Montoya, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin — took their best shots and fell short.
Temporarily, David Reutimann (183.108 mph) claimed the second starting spot in Friday’s time trials, but Reutimann’s time was subsequently disallowed after NASCAR found during post-qualifying inspection that the rear shock absorbers on his No. 00 Toyota exceeded NASCAR’s gas-level limit.
NASCAR confiscated both rear shocks, but NASCAR spokesperson Ramsey Poston said the sanctioning body would not impose additional penalties beyond disallowing the time.
Greg Biffle (182.704 mph) earned the third position and moved up to the outside of the front row after Reutimann’s disqualification. Johnson (182.635 mph) and Montoya (182. 315 mph) qualified fourth and fifth, respectively. With Reutimann starting 42nd on an owner points provisional because of the disallowed time, Johnson moved up to the third position and Montoya to the fourth.
Martin, who leads Johnson by 18 points with seven races left in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, will start ninth, after a lap at 181.979 mph. Martin Truex Jr., rookie Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer claimed positions five through eight, respectively.
Between practice and qualifying, Hamlin, who is sixth in the Chase standings, picked up substantial speed after his crew made massive changes to a car that was 27th-quickest in the practice session.
“It was definitely a good run — a big pickup for us,” said Hamlin, who won the seventh pole of his Cup career and his first since May 2008 at Richmond. “We definitely didn’t expect that after how poorly we practiced. The good part about that is — when you run so horribly in practice — you’re at liberty to just kind of throw everything you want at it.
“That’s what we did, and came up with a great setup.”
In addition to Hamlin, Biffle, Johnson, Montoya and Martin, the other seven Chase drivers will start as follows: Jeff Gordon, 10th; Carl Edwards, 11th; Tony Stewart 20th; Kurt Busch, 24th; Kasey Kahne, 25th; Brian Vickers 32nd; and Ryan Newman 36th.
.Tags: Hamlin races to the pole, Reutimann, Reutimann's time DQ'd