Denny Hamlin qualifies first at Martinsville, moves into tie for 10th in NASCAR poles

With his win two weeks ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Hamlin, 45, broke a tie with Kevin Harvick for 10th on the all-time win list in NASCAR’s premier series. He is two poles away from tying the career total of Ryan Newman, one of the greatest qualifiers in NASCAR history.

“It’s pretty awesome,” said Hamlin, who grew up a few hours east of Martinsville in the Richmond, Virginia, suburb of Chesterfield. “Really with age, the hardest part is still having the fast time. It’s one thing to be able to manage races and use your experience to your advantage. But usually the first thing to go is your all-out speed, and we’re still knocking off poles, which is really good. I was around when Newman was just unstoppable in qualifying. So damn, I didn’t know he had that many.”

Hamlin has six wins at Martinsville, and his victory last season broke a 10-year drought at the 0.526-mile oval.

Byron won the most recent race at Martinsville last October and has victories in three of the past eight races there.

“I feel like our race car is going to be really good tomorrow,” said the Hendrick Motorsports driver, whose previous best start this season was ninth at Phoenix and Las Vegas. “We’ve learned a lot this year. It seems like Saturdays have been a struggle for us this year and not as consistent as we’d like.”

Josh Berry qualified third, followed by Ty Gibbs and Shane van Gisbergen.

Brad Keselowski, who will make his 600th career start Sunday, qualified 23rd.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing