By David Morgan, Associate Editor
AVONDALE, Ariz. – Chalk another one up for Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
The 60-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series will have the best seat in the house when the green flag falls on Sunday’s Cup Series Championship Race after winning the pole ahead of his championship rivals.
Hamlin’s lap of 26.914 seconds, 133.759 mph, boosted him to the top of the board and he was able to hold off all comers to clinch the pole ahead of William Byron and Kyle Larson.
“We’re trying. We’re doing everything we can. Really proud of this whole Progressive Toyota team. You know, we worked hard at it. We’ve really been working hard and hopefully we get the payoff tomorrow,” said Hamlin.
“We’re obviously going to be in a great starting spot at this point, then we’ve just got to make sure we do all the right things and that execute the entire day. Largely, that’s going to rest on my shoulders and I’ll do the best I can.”
The fourth driver in the championship battle, Chase Briscoe, will start Sunday’s race in 12th place as his team is still searching for speed after troubles in practice on Friday.
As all four filed into the media center for a post-qualifying press conference, each of them appeared stone faced as they prepared to field questions about their championship battle.
But then, slowly, but surely, they loosened up as they cajoled each other over the course of the proceedings, laughter and smiles across the board filed the room.
The overall consensus being that when they put the helmet on, they’re competitors, but away from that, they can still be friendly in competition.
One occasion being when the question came about of Hamlin being the fan favorite on social media and how they viewed that.
“I mean, I don’t really look at the app, Twitter, so I don’t know,” Byron started off saying.
Hamlin was quick to snap back with a laugh, “Just so you know, it’s called ‘X’ now.”
Larson added that he was not shocked by the sentiment of a Hamlin pick to be the champion given how long he’s been battling to get to the top of the mountain.
“Honestly I’m not surprised, I guess,” said Larson. “I think because, yeah, everybody likes a story like that where somebody nearing the end of their career, all that. It’s great.
“Yeah, I mean, I can see why people would cheer for him. I’m a competitor. I obviously want to win. But it would be really cool to see somebody who has put in so much time to this sport and been so close so many times. 60 wins.”
But still, he’s not going to put up any less of a fight if it comes down to he and Hamlin on Sunday.
“I’m going to want to kick his ass tomorrow, but it’s not going to kill me if he wins, unless he runs me in the fence again,” Larson quipped.
Briscoe echoed those sentiments, noting that if he didn’t win the title himself in his first Championship 4 appearance, he wouldn’t be upset if it was Hamlin that got the job done.
“It doesn’t surprise me. Anybody with common sense knows that Denny is more than capable of being a champion. You don’t win 60 races,” said Briscoe.
“I think it would be a shame, right, if whenever he does decide to hang it up, he would be the best ever that’s never one, right? I think everyone knows that he is more than capable.
“Even myself, right? Like Kyle said, I’m a competitor. Like if I don’t win, I want Denny to win just so he can kind of have that on his résumé.
“So yeah, I think it doesn’t surprise me at all that the fans feel the same way.”
