NASCAR Cup Martinsville starting lineup: Denny Hamlin rockets to pole

Denny Hamlin faces a 73-point deficit in the championship battle, but he’s not yet out of it. He responded to the pressure with an impressive pole position at Martinsville, beating Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs by 0.049s. It was the 54th pole of Hamlin’s career and his sixth of the 2026 season.

Championship leader Kyle Larson was the top-qualifying Chevrolet in third, with Austin Cindric fourth and Joey Logano fifth.

Advertisement

Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Josh Berry filled out the remainder of the top ten.

“Yeah, it was a great lap,” said Hamlin, who has six Cup wins at Martinsville (leading all active drivers). “Truthfully, I kind of hit all the marks I wanted to hit. The car did a lot of the things I needed it to do there on that first lap. So it was a really great job by the race team. Great adjustments there, and we’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow.”

On the title battle, Hamlin added: “We’re going to give it all we’ve got, and all we’ve got is all we’ve got. I wish I had a little bit more, but we just need to control our own destiny tomorrow, and that’s getting the best day we possibly can, and wherever the chips fall from there, they do.”

Advertisement

Read Also:

Complete NASCAR Cup points standings after 2026 Talladega II

There were no incidents in qualifying, but Cody Ware did not make a lap after suffering nose damage in practice.

Larson enters this race with a 73-point advantage over Hamlin, and needs to outscore Hamlin by four points to clinch the title early. He struggled in practice, but qualifying was a huge improvement for the No. 5 team.

“It was solid,” said Larson, who has one win at Martinsville. “I was hopeful for the lap time to show a little faster, because it didn’t feel that bad the first lap, but a little squirmy on entry, but I thought my exit grip was okay. And then the second lap was just all that, but worse. So, happy to start in the first couple rows, and hopefully we can stay in the hunt all day.”

Advertisement

I think everybody else is convinced that we’re going to lock it up here this weekend, but to me, I’m not looking at it that way. Obviously, Denny starts ahead of me, so he’s really, really good here. He was one position away from a max points day earlier this year. I’m more just kind of looking at how to keep it up front to leave myself a buffer for next week. And then, yeah, we’ll see how the race plays out, but that’s kind of my mindset. You know, Denny’s definitely a much better short track racer than me. But yeah, just trying to stay in the hunt.”

While track position is critical at the half-mile track, it can also be a chaotic race as a driver starting from the front row has only won this race a single time in the last 26 Cup races at the paperclip. By contrast, a driver starting 10th or worse has won six of the last eight.

NASCAR Cup ‘Xfinity 500’ Martinsville starting lineup

Watch: Hamlin talks expectations with Michael Jordan, clutch performances

Advertisement

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.