Denny Hamlin Grabs the Pole at Bristol With a New Track Record

         With a track record breaking time of 14.761 seconds (129.991 mph), Denny Hamlin was able to steal the pole from Team Penske and the rest of the Cup field at Bristol. Denny Hamlin, who had troubles in this race one year ago, was the class of the field in both of the qualifying rounds. In the first round, he ran one single lap and it was good enough for third fastest on the board. In the second round, one lap was good enough for the track record and his first pole position of the season in NASCAR's highest series. Team Penske, who was looking to sweep the front row for the third straight week with drivers Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, fell just short of a third straight sweep. But the session wasn't terrible for them. Keselowski walked away starting second while Logano will start in the top five in fourth position on Sunday. Others were at the far end of the spectrum in terms of qualifying. Three of the four Stewart-Haas Racing drivers are starting twenty seventh or worse and two of the four are starting outside the top 35. They will definitely be in for a fight with a few other drivers in the back. Still, this qualifying session was great. Just the prospect of forty five cars running around at Bristol going as fast as possible is action waiting to happen especially when each of these cars is trying to run faster than the other. Of course, the session turned out to be full of action and suspense as well.

        The session brought two rounds with the first round containing thirty minutes to battle for the top twelve spots. Alex Bowman was the first driver to make it on track. He ran a decent lap, but others would be in the battle for the pole position. Kurt Busch quickly took the first position in the round in the early minutes. Brad Keselowski took it three minutes into the round just a few seconds after Marcos Ambrose had jumped to the top of the board. A minute later, Kyle Busch bumped Keselowski to second thanks to a quick lap. Before Busch could be comfortable at the top, Ryan Newman blasted to the top. Newman held it for a few minutes before Joey Logano went out and blistered Newman's current fast lap. The action at the top of the board began to calm down for the moment, but the battle was still raging for twelfth behind the top qualifiers of the first round. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, and others began to battle hard for twelfth. Pretty soon, only ten minutes remained with Kenseth holding onto twelfth. The minutes began to tick away as cars were cooling on pit road to run more laps to take the top spot or make it into the top twelve. Soon, five minutes were left on the board with Kenseth still holding the transfer spot. Cars just outside of the top twelve began to flood the speedway with a few minutes left, but they each fell short of Kenseth's time. Dale Earnhardt Jr. came out with about a minute left and he was the last hope to bump Kenseth out. Earnhardt's run looked clean, but he stayed in fourteenth and a few hundredths behind Kenseth. The red and black flag waved and the top twelve drivers were set. Joey Logano, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Busch moved on to the second and final round while Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and others barely missed the top twelve. This left one ten minute fight between twelve of the world's best race car drivers at the one of the smallest tracks on NASCAR's schedule.

        Kyle Busch was the first driver out on track to start the second round. He ran a quick lap and was the early polesitter for the second round, but the pole would quickly switch around. With about five minutes left on the clock, most of the field began to come out on track. Brad Keselowski jumped to the top of the board. About a minute later, his teammate, Joey Logano, jumped to the top of the board. It looked like another Team Penske sweep was in the makings, but Denny Hamlin said not so fast. He blistered the field with a track record speed and he jumped to the top of the board easily just seconds later. He had four minutes to hold onto the pole, but they would be a long four minutes. His teammate, Matt Kenseth, jumped to second about a minute later, but Hamlin was still on point. Cars began to come out for their second runs, but Hamlin only needed to survive a minute. Drivers tried hard to grab the pole, but it wasn't happening. The red and black flag waved a final time and Hamlin was still on top of the board. This gave him his first pole of the season in blistering fashion over the Cup field. It was great revenge for Hamlin at the track where his season unraveled one year ago.

        This time last year, Denny Hamlin's season was looking pretty good. He already had a top five three races in and he was sitting in fourth place in points. Then, it all unraveled at Bristol. Hamlin made slight contact with former teammate, Joey Logano, and contact with the wall for Logano caused a pushing and shoving match between the two teams after the race. One week later at Auto Club, the conflict exploded. Coming to the checkered, Logano and Hamlin made contact battling for the win. Hamlin slid down track and slammed the wall with tremendous force. Logano coasted to a top five with damage, but Hamlin was hurt. He had a compression fracture in his back and he would miss a few races. This conflict put his season on the rocks and it ended with a glimmer of hope as he walked away the race winner at Homestead. Now, Hamlin is back at Bristol for retribution. He starts on pole and he seems to have a good enough car to take the victory. Plus, Hamlin wants this win badly. Joey Logano isn't far away, though. He will roll off fourth and he will surely be close to Hamlin when all is said and done. Also, expect drivers like Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and many others to be up front when the race nears a close. It certainly won't be a easy fight. Drivers will have to lose some tempers to take home the checkered flag and we know for a certain fact someone won't be happy when the checkered flag waves on Sunday. The only question is: who will be that angry driver? The series will be ready for that battle on Sunday. Will Kasey Kahne take two in a row in the Bristol Spring race, will Matt Kenseth repeat after his triumph in the fall, will Denny Hamlin redeem himself, or will another driver walk away with the trophy? We will have to wait until Sunday to find out.
(More Stats Down Below!)




Top 5 Qualifiers (With Times):
1st: Denny Hamlin     14.761 (129.991 mph)
2nd: Brad Keselowski     14.764 (129.965 mph)
3rd: Matt Kenseth     14.866 (129.073 mph)
4th: Joey Logano     14.894 (128.830 mph)
5th: Marcos Ambrose     14.906 (128.727 mph)

Notables Not in Top 5 (With Times):
6th: Jeff Gordon     14.962 (128.245 mph)
7th: Kyle Busch     14.972 (128.159 mph)
10th: Kasey Kahne      15.027 (127.690 mph)
11th: Jimmie Johnson     15.063 (127.385 mph)
13th: Kurt Busch     14.953 (128.322 mph)*
14th: Dale Earnhardt Jr.     14.959 (128.271 mph)*
27th: Kevin Harvick      15.056 (127.444 mph)*
36th: Danica Patrick      15.153 (126.628 mph)
37th: Tony Stewart      15.163 (126.545 mph)
(*: These three drivers were faster than some of those in the top twelve, but they did not advance from the first round and couldn't battle for those positions.)

DNQs (With Times):
44th: David Reutimann     15.154 (126.620 mph)#
45th: Dave Blaney      15.330 (125.166 mph)
(#: Reutimann was faster than most of the drivers outside the top thirty six, but he was not high enough in Owner's Points to make the race.)




Credits:
-My Own Notes
-Statistics:
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/sprint-cup-series/leaderboard/leaderboard-qualification.html
http://racing-reference.info/getqualify/2014-04/W
-Image:
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/586e512e65cce53c1380dca4a88078849a2ab79a/c=252-53-760-434&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2014/03/14//1394838642000-hamlinpole.jpg