earned pole place for the NASCAR Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway, securing his 52nd profession pole and his fourth of the 2026 season.
It was a nail-bitter for the driver, with of almost matching Hamlin on his personal qualifying lap. He’ll begin on the surface of the entrance row, simply 0.001s slower than Hamlin.
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The RFK Racing duo of and will begin third and fourth, respectively. It is then a trio of JGR drivers with fifth, sixth, and seventh.
, , and stuffed out the rest of the highest ten.
“I gotta be sincere with you, I bought extraordinarily fortunate,” stated Hamlin, who remarked that his aim was P12 attributable to his early run within the order. “Anybody that goes out proper now beats me. We bought fortunate these final 12 guys simply bought caught within the solar. The observe could be very temperature delicate. It will get a bit little bit of solar on it and it slows method up. I feel we bought actually lucky there with the timing of that, and we hit our lap fairly first rate contemplating after we went out.”
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Hamlin enters this race as the brand new championship chief, one level forward of within the common season standings. Reddick will begin thirteenth on Sunday.
Qualifying recap
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With storms approaching, qualifying bought underway with J.J. Yeley as the primary driver out on observe.
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Herbst led the way in which in Friday apply, and he set the early benchmark in qualifying at 30.576s. He remained P1 till teammate Reddick toppled him with s 30.523s lap.
bought into the wall on the exit of Flip 2, and needed to abandon his lap with out placing up a time.
It was a Toyota social gathering on the entrance, and Reddick held the lead till yet one more 23XI driver went to the highest with Wallace working a 30.420s. Nonetheless, it didn’t final lengthy as his boss went out subsequent and bested him. Hamlin a 30.296s, and it was going to be robust for anybody to beat that lap.
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Because the session progressed, it was RFK Racing that had an actual run at Hamlin. Keselowski bought inside three tenths, and Buescher was simply 0.015s away from having the quickest lap.
Because the observe cooled down with elevated cloud cowl from inclement climate approaching, speeds picked up. A number of drivers had a shot at pole, and Larson was throughout Hamlin, however ended up lacking Hamlin’s pole lap by 0.001s as they almost tied.
2026 NASCAR Cup Chicagoland Beginning Lineup
Pos.
Driver
1
Denny Hamlin
2
Kyle Larson
3
Chris Buescher
4
Brad Keselowski
5
Ty Gibbs
6
Christopher Bell
7
Chase Briscoe
8
Bubba Wallace
9
Chase Elliott
10
William Byron
11
12
13
Tyler Reddick
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
.
25
26
27
28
Corey Heim
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Austin Hill
36
37
Cody Ware
38
Michael McDowell
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