Denny Hamlin has won the provisional pole for Saturday’s Cup Series night race at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN).
With a speed of 129.230 Hamlin claimed his first pole of the season and the first pole of the year for Toyota.
The qualifying results will not be final until after inspection Saturday. If a car fails inspections once it time will be disallowed and will start from the rear.
Should his car pass inspection, it would be Hamlin’s 31st career pole and his fourth at Bristol, which leads active drivers.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver enters this weekend with five consecutive top-five finishes.
“These guys are on it right now, it’s unbelievable,” Hamlin told NBCSN. “Just definitely trying to learn every week, do everything I can to get better and the results are showing it.”
Hamlin will be joined on the front row by Kyle Larson (129.004 mph).
The top five is completed by Martin Truex Jr. (128.995), defending race winner Kurt Busch (128.813) and Aric Almirola (128.770).
Kyle Busch, who won at Bristol in the spring, was the first car to make a qualifying attempt and he qualified 31st. According to Racing Insights, only two of the 117 Cup races at Bristol were won from a starting position of 30th or worse.