Toyota has a Cup Series pole in 2019.
Denny Hamlin posted the fastest lap in Friday’s qualifying session at Bristol and will start first on Saturday night. The manufacturer, which consists of four cars at Joe Gibbs Racing and a car at Leavine Family Racing, hadn’t won a pole all season until Hamlin was fast on Friday despite having three drivers combine for 11 wins in 23 races so far this season.
Toyota’s relative lack of qualifying speed sure looks like it’s been a strategy with NASCAR’s new rules for 2019. And it’s been working. A win by Hamlin on Saturday would be his fourth of the season and would tie him with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. for most in the Cup Series.
Hamlin has won once at Bristol before. He took the checkered flag during the summer night race in 2012.
His pole also came after he noted on Twitter Friday afternoon that Speedway Motorsports Inc., the company that owned Bristol, had made some changes to the upper groove at the track.
It’s my understanding that @MarcusSMI told track workers to do it. He’s not here unfortunately or media could possibly ask him for the reasoning behind it. SMI has had a history of just changing tracks on a whim without much communication. https://t.co/eD9JcVY3fp
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) August 16, 2019
For the last 2 months @NASCAR and it’s drivers have done a amazing job of communicating what should be done to the track surfaces to help the racing. The results have been very good thus far. Let’s hope that continues
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) August 16, 2019
These are informational tweets as well, not complaining ones. Obviously we are fast just the way it is 🏁
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) August 16, 2019
Hamlin’s tweets came after Kurt Busch had noted a lack of communication between drivers, NASCAR, and the track with the track’s surface prep efforts.
“What I’m getting at is we as drivers keep showing up each week and there is a driver council that is trying to help with where the traction compound should be sprayed,” Kurt Busch said. “But then there are these random tracks that are grinding the race track and NASCAR didn’t know that Bristol Motor Speedway was going to grind the race track. The theory is that the track was trying to eliminate the grip level that the drivers have been able to find up there and put it back down on the bottom. Each race each weekend is something different.”
SMI CEO Marcus Smith oddly responded to Hamlin’s tweet by quoting a tweet from Bristol saying the ticket office was receiving a high volume of work. He then gave a straight answer.
Thanks for asking! Actually we just cleaned off the upper groove. No grinding, and no changing.
— Marcus Smith (@MarcusSMI) August 16, 2019
Bristol has struggled to replicate the racing that happened in the late 1990s and early 2000s since repaving the track a dozen years ago. Though it needs to be said that the racing that’s happened at Bristol in recent years has been pretty good and fun. We’ll see if it’s good and fun on Saturday night.
Starting lineup
1. Denny Hamlin
2. Kyle Larson
3. Martin Truex Jr.
4. Kurt Busch
5. Aric Almirola
6. Chase Elliott
7. Matt DiBenedetto
8. Kevin Harvick
9. Erik Jones
10. Alex Bowman
11. Joey Logano
12. Ryan Blaney
13. Brad Keselowski
14. Ryan Newman
16. David Ragan
17. Daniel Hemric
18. Daniel Suarez
19. Austin Dillon
20. Clint Bowyer
21. William Byron
22. Bubba Wallace
23. Ryan Preece
24. Ty Dillon
25. Paul Menard
26. Corey LaJoie
27. Matt Tifft
28. Michael McDowell
29. Chris Buescher
30. Jimmie Johnson
31. Kyle Busch
32. Landon Cassill
33. BJ McLeod
34. Quin Houff
35. Josh Bilicki
36. JJ Yeley
37. Reed Sorenson
38. Kyle Weatherman
39. Ross Chastain
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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