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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Hamlin Rolls To Atlanta Pole
Denny Hamlin has five victories this season...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted September 04, 2010   Hampton, GA
Denny Hamlin and team with the pole award for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Denny Hamlin has struggled in recent weeks, but you’d never know it Saturday, as he claimed the pole for tomorrow night’s Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

LINK > QUALIFYING RESULTS: EMORY HEALTHCARE 500 - ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
PDF > STARTING LINEUP BY ROW: EMORY HEALTHCARE 500 - ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Hamlin is tied with Jimmie Johnson for most NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories with five. In the last nine races, however, he has six finishes of 14th or worse, as he’s fallen from third to fifth in points and lost critical momentum.

None of that mattered Saturday, though, as Hamlin spanked the field with a lap of 187.830 miles per hour in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “We still feel like we need to get some wins before the Chase starts,” said Hamlin. “We don’t have to in order to win the championship, but we feel like it’s important to us in these next two weeks to show how strong we are.”

The pole was the first of the year for Hamlin and his eighth in 176 career Sprint Cup starts.

With two races left until the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Hamlin wants to break the tie with Johnson and big up some additional bonus points. “You want everybody staying positive and it’s tough to do that when you have mechanical failures,” said Hamlin. “For us these next two weeks are about gaining that momentum and hopefully we’re doing it by winning races.”

Qualifying on the outside of Row 1 was Ryan Newman, who is who is 15th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings, 118 out of 12th place. Newman ran 187.070 mph in his No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

Starting on Row 2 will be Hamlin’s teammate, Kyle Busch, who had a lap of 187.063 mph, and Carl Edwards, who ran 186.881 mph in his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

“Momentum is a big key,” said Busch, who won the most recent Sprint Cup race at Bristol two weeks ago. “If we can run strong here, that is something we can build on our mile-and-a-half program and that’s something I haven’t been so well at this year. Denny’s been good, we haven’t been that good, but we’ve been good at the short tracks. We’re hoping to just kind of keep all that going and build some stronger race cars for in the Chase.”

Tony Stewart tied Edwards’s speed but will start fifth on the basis of points. Martin Truex Jr. was sixth, his No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota qualifying at 186.818 mph.

Stewart said he liked his chances tomorrow night. “I don't know ... if we are where we want to be exactly, but I think our times are decent,” he said. “It's just a matter of what it's going to do at night and how that's going to affect the balance, but I think we're in the ballgame.”

Completing the top 10 were Juan Pablo Montoya, Jimmie Johnson, David Ragan and Kasey Kahne.

Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick qualified 29th.

Failing to qualify were Todd Bodine, Scott Riggs, Jason Leffler and Landon Cassill.

LINK > QUALIFYING RESULTS: EMORY HEALTHCARE 500 - ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
PDF > STARTING LINEUP BY ROW: EMORY HEALTHCARE 500 - ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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