Friday, March 14, 2014

Denny Hamlin on Bristol Pole, sets track record

Denny Hamlin sets track record today at Bristol
Denny Hamlin set a track record to win the pole for Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Hamlin knocked Joey Logano off the pole with a speed of 129.99 mph and kept Logano and Penske teammate Brad Keselowski from sweeping the front row for the second straight week.

Keselowski, who won last week at Las Vegas, wound up second, followed by Matt Kenseth, Logano, Marcos Ambrose, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards.

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Hamlin was in awe of his fast lap.

"It's fast, faster than I ever imagined going around this track," he said. "Every rules change we have just makes this car go a little bit faster."

Hamlin expects to be even faster in the race.

"I'm way more excited about it in race trim than I was in qualifying," he said.

While the top 12 advanced to the final round, Kurt Busch just missed it and will start 13th. Danica Patrick, meanwhile, was 36th-fastest, just making the field on speed.

David Reutimann and Dave Blaney failed to qualify.

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