Denny Hamlin outduels Chase Briscoe for Las Vegas pole

LAS VEGAS — Denny Hamlin bested qualifying ace Chase Briscoe to win the pole for the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hamlin set a time of 29.213 seconds, narrowly emerging ahead of his teammate Chase Briscoe for his fourth pole of the season and 47th of his career.

Hamlin will start his Round of 8 on a positive note trying to capture his elusive first NASCAR Cup Series championship.

“I felt good about the lap truthfully, the car was good in the short run in practice and now we’ve got to work on the long run,” Hamlin said after his qualifying run.

Hamlin admitted Saturdays have been their “Achilles’ heel” at Las Vegas. That sentiment set the tone for previous weekends at the speedway and now he finally righted that wrong.

Though there is still more work for that team to do, as Hamlin explained, “There are so many transitions from Saturday to Sunday, even to the end of Sunday. having to deal with that has always been a challenge a this racetrack.”

How the rest of the Round of 8 Drivers Line Up

Christopher Bell joined his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates a row behind in third, marking the organizations first 1-2-3 start since 2020. Joining him in the second row and starting fourth will be the most recent intermediate winner, Chase Elliott.

William Byron will start in fifth, teammate Kyle Larson in sixth.

The pair of recently eliminated teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick will start together on the fourth row, seventh and eighth respectively.

Finally, Ty Gibbs rounded out the top ten and continued his strong form from the earlier practice session.

Team Penske improved from their slow practice runs, though they are still lagging behind their Round of 8 competitors.

Joey Logano took a leap forward from practice as he is set to start ninth. Ryan Blaney only marginally improved and will start 14th — the last of the current playoff drivers.

NASCAR Cup Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Lineup and Qualifying Results

1. Denny Hamlin 29.213
2. Chase Briscoe 29.249
3. Christopher Bell 29.255
4. Chase Elliott 29.259
5. William Byron 29.304
6. Kyle Larson 29.328
7. Bubba Wallace 29.401
8. Tyler Reddick 29.413
9. Joey Logano 29.421
10. Ty Gibbs 29.454
11. Chris Buescher 29.537
12. Alex Bowman 29.540
13. Shane Van Gisbergen 29.586
14. Ryan Blaney 29.592
15. Ross Chastain 29.594
16. Ryan Preece 29.626
17. Daniel Suarez 29.645
18. Michael McDowell 29.647
19. Erik Jones 29.679
20. AJ Allmendinger 29.690
21. Cole Custer 29.693
22. Carson Hocevar 29.703
23. Zane Smith 29.720
24. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 29.765
25. Austin Dillon 29.779
26. John Hunter Nemechek 29.779
27. Justin Haley 29.779
28. Noah Gragson 29.862
29. Josh Berry 29.909
30. Todd Gilliland 30.022
31. Austin Cindric 30.089
32. Kyle Busch 30.090
33. Riley Herbst 30.147
34. Brad Keselowski 30.210
35. Ty Dillon 30.321
36. Cody Ware 30.627
37. J.J. Yeley 30.661
38. Katherine Legge 31.644

Ty Gibbs fastest in NASCAR Cup Series Practice from Las Vegas

Ty Gibbs set the fastest lap in Cup Series practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His 29.714-second lap was nearly a tenth up on the fastest Round of 8 competitor in William Byron, who put up a 29.806 second time.

Byron also showed the most promise in the lap averages chart. He came away from the session as the fastest from the five-lap running speed onward.

While Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing playoff drivers filled six of the top 10 timeslots, Team Penske lacked the raw speed necessary to compete so far.

The Round of 8 Penske duo of Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano found themselves in 17th and 28th at the end of the session. Both drivers came down pit road in the middle of the session to find some answers to their lack of pace.

The most recent drivers bounced out of the playoffs had strong showings. Ross Chastain led the first practice group on time, finishing the complete session in eighth. Although he did find the outside wall late in the Group A session, the team made swift repairs and qualified.

The 23XI teammates of Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick ended up fifth and sixth as well and look to steal a playoff win from the rest of the Round of 8 at the final intermediate race of the season.