Denny Hamlin will start on the pole at the Darlington Raceway for the 33rd annual VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200. Hamlin posted a lap of 28.640 seconds, 171.704 mph. in the final round of qualifying on Saturday. The run will mark Hamlin’s 20th career XFINITY Series pole and the fourth of the season for the Virginia native.
Starting right beside Hamlin will be teammate Daniel Suarez in the No. 18 AARIS Toyota. Suarez held the provisional pole for most of the session until Hamlin posted the fastest time with 25 seconds remaining. The native from Mexico posted a time and speed of 28.728 seconds, 171.178 mph. in the final round.
Kyle Larson will take the green in the third starting position on Saturday afternoon at Darlington. Larson posted a time and speed of 28.763 seconds, 170.970 mph. on his second of two laps in the final round. The California native will use the third-place starting position as momentum to seek his third career victory in the series.
Elliott Sadler will start in the 24th position after suffering a flat tire between rounds one and two. Sadler and the team were unable to notice the problem until it was too late. NASCAR will typically allow the racing teams to make a tire change between rounds if a flat occurs.
Kyle Busch had his time disallowed after a blend line violation during his run. The Las Vegas native was unable to reach the start finish line on his second run and could not post an official lap time. Busch and the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team will start the race from the 36th position.
There were no incidents in the three rounds of qualifying.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.