Denny Hamlin admits he's not a professional at pole winning, yet he knocked "rocket" Ryan Newman off the Atlanta Motor Speedway pole on Saturday.
Hamlin has competed in 175 NASCAR Sprint Cup races and has 13 victories --five of them this year. Yet the Virginia native notched the pole for only the eighth time in his career.
"I'm a very bad qualifier," Hamlin said, "so I'll take it,” he said after recording a lap speed of 187.380 mph.
Newman, attempting to win a record eighth pole at the one-and-one-half mile oval, had an average speed of 187.070mph.
“Trying to break that jinx (Buddy Baker’s record for number of poles at Atlanta) that you have given me. I felt like I had everything I could get out of (turns) three and four and didn’t get everything out of it in (turns) one and two. The track is so unpredictable with the bumps and everything else that even when you think you hit your marks, you can hit a bump just a little bit the wrong way and get thrown off.”
More important to Hamlin was to build momentum as the regular season ends next week, in Richmond, and the Chase begins one week later in New Hampshire.
At the moment Hamlin is tied with four-time Champion, Jimmie Johnson, with five wins which would put each of them at the top of the series standings when the points are reset, but Hamlin has been in a bit of slump lately.
"I feel like the last 10 races have definitely been up and down for our team," Hamlin explained. "We were on such a hot streak there. We kind of got spoiled. The regular season was kind of irrelevant at that point because we knew we were going to get in the Chase."
Now, it’s full speed ahead: “Our Chase starts this weekend. We’re bringing the best stuff that we have starting right now,” said Hamlin.
Kyle Busch will start third alongside Carl Edwards in fourth. Canadian Patrick Carpentier qualified 35th.
Failing to make the 43-car field were Jason Leffler, Landon Cassill, Scott Riggs and Todd Bodine.
Hamlin has competed in 175 NASCAR Sprint Cup races and has 13 victories --five of them this year. Yet the Virginia native notched the pole for only the eighth time in his career.
"I'm a very bad qualifier," Hamlin said, "so I'll take it,” he said after recording a lap speed of 187.380 mph.
Newman, attempting to win a record eighth pole at the one-and-one-half mile oval, had an average speed of 187.070mph.
“Trying to break that jinx (Buddy Baker’s record for number of poles at Atlanta) that you have given me. I felt like I had everything I could get out of (turns) three and four and didn’t get everything out of it in (turns) one and two. The track is so unpredictable with the bumps and everything else that even when you think you hit your marks, you can hit a bump just a little bit the wrong way and get thrown off.”
More important to Hamlin was to build momentum as the regular season ends next week, in Richmond, and the Chase begins one week later in New Hampshire.
At the moment Hamlin is tied with four-time Champion, Jimmie Johnson, with five wins which would put each of them at the top of the series standings when the points are reset, but Hamlin has been in a bit of slump lately.
"I feel like the last 10 races have definitely been up and down for our team," Hamlin explained. "We were on such a hot streak there. We kind of got spoiled. The regular season was kind of irrelevant at that point because we knew we were going to get in the Chase."
Now, it’s full speed ahead: “Our Chase starts this weekend. We’re bringing the best stuff that we have starting right now,” said Hamlin.
Kyle Busch will start third alongside Carl Edwards in fourth. Canadian Patrick Carpentier qualified 35th.
Failing to make the 43-car field were Jason Leffler, Landon Cassill, Scott Riggs and Todd Bodine.