AVONDALE, Ariz. — Denny Hamlin was convinced he had to improve his performance at Phoenix Raceway, and on Saturday afternoon, he took the first step in that direction.
Touring the one-mile track in 27.138 seconds (132.655 seconds) in the final round of qualifying, Hamlin put his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the pole for Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500.
Hamlin, who hasn’t won at Phoenix since 2019, beat JGR teammate Ty Gibbs (132.227 mph) by 0.088 seconds for the top starting spot in the fourth NASCAR Cup Series event of the season.
“I’m really trying to get better at this place,” Hamlin said after securing his first Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his third at Phoenix and the 41st of his career, 13th-most all-time.
“If we want to make a run at a championship — and you’ve got to win it through Phoenix — you’ve got to get better at Phoenix.”
The pole position was the 150th for Toyota in the Cup Series, with Hamlin accounting for 36 of those. His first five poles came in Chevrolets, before Joe Gibbs Racing switched to Toyota. Included in that group of five was Hamlin’s first career pole, at Phoenix in 2005.
Unlike the rest of his final-round competitors, who made sharp cuts across the frontstretch dogleg, Hamlin took a more conservative approach and benefitted from a more favorable angle into Turn 1 on his money lap.
“I was kind of 50-50 on it,” Hamlin explained. “I didn’t cut it in the first round, but we consistently saw that I was about a half-car-length behind entering Turn 1, but my angle was better.
“That was a very indecisive decision — ‘OK, I won’t go all the way, but I won’t stay where I was,’ and it netted out in a good position where I was able to cut a little bit but also keep my angle into Turn 1.”
Chase Elliott (132.144 mph), winless since the fall Talladega race in 2022, qualified third in his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, followed by Toyota drivers Erik Jones and DAYTONA 500 winner William Byron.
Tyler Reddick was sixth, ahead of Noah Gragson in the top Ford, Chase Briscoe, Michael McDowell and Sunoco rookie Carson Hocevar.
Hamlin’s pole-winning run broke a streak of three straight poles to open the season by Ford drivers.
Mixed reactions to new NASCAR Cup short-track competition package
During a 50-minute practice session on Friday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR Cup Series drivers tried to fine-tune the short-track competition package they will race for the first time in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500.
The practice produced a wide range of reactions across the spectrum of competitors.
Joey Logano enjoyed the experience, and not just because he topped the speed chart during the session.
“Our Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang is fast,” Logano said. “That always makes it fun. Definitely a lot of slipping and sliding as the tires fall off. This track has become more and more racey, and it’s widening out.
“The ‘old’ Phoenix from years and years ago is starting to come back. This package seems to be a little bit more in that direction, as there’s less downforce and a little bit more off-throttle time.”
Though Denny Hamlin brought a radically different setup from years past to a track where he has struggled in race trim, he felt the new package — which features a smaller, simplified diffuser, a reduced number of underbody strakes and a taller spoiler — was a step in the right direction.
“It is going to be a very, very small change,” said Hamlin, who was second in the practice session. “But anything that can allow us to run closer together, cross each other’s wake without the air blocking we have seen over the last few weeks, that will be a good thing.
“And I certainly think that this package, (and) this (new Goodyear) tire is heading in the right direction. It’s not all the way there, but it’s certainly heading there.”
Martin Truex Jr. said the car didn’t feel different from the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota he drove last November. Chase Elliott had a similar opinion.
“I forgot they did anything until they started talking about it afterwards,” said the 2020 Cup champion, who was seventh on the speed chart in the fastest Chevrolet. “I don’t see it really changing a whole lot. I could be totally wrong, but I don’t think it’s going to change much.”
Kyle Busch’s pit crew woes bring shakeup to over-the-wall gang
Three races into the NASCAR Cup Series season, the performance of Kyle Busch’s pit crew hasn’t matched the two-time champion’s prowess on the track.
Following pit road mistakes that cost Busch dearly last Sunday at Las Vegas, Richard Childress Racing made wholesale changes to the over-the-wall crew on the No. 8 Chevrolet.
Shiloh Windsor replaces Michael Russell as front tire changer, Michael Johnson takes Chris Jackson’s spot as rear tire changer and Doug Warwick replaces Garrett Crall as jack man. All three new crew members are full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, on the cars of Anthony Alfredo, Austin Hill and Parker Kligerman, respectively.
All three also will continue in their Xfinity Series roles. The tire changers will have to adapt to single-lug Cup cars from the Xfinity cars, which still use five lugs per wheel.
You can forgive Busch if he isn’t thoroughly familiar with the circumstances of the changes. Warwick will be the third jack man on the car in four races this season.
“I don’t have any idea of where guys are coming from, what their background is or what their experience is,” Busch said before Friday’s practice at Phoenix.
“I always just kind of assume that the Cup guys were the Xfinity guys, so news to me. We’ll find out how good they are come around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.”
Last Sunday, Busch slid though his pit box as he tried to compensate for the pit crew’s performance. Because the crew serviced the car with the splitter barely over the line, he was penalized for pitting outside the box and relegated to a 26th-place finish.
–By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media