Hamlin wins pole for Pennsylvania 500

By Greg Engle
Cup Scene Daily
July 22
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Get the brooms ready.

Denny Hamlin will race at Pocono Raceway Sunday for only the second time in his career. The last visit here, he started on the pole and staged an amazing comeback to win.

Sunday, he’ll start on the pole again after running a Lap of 169.827 miles per hour Friday to win the pole for the Pennsylvania 500.

After the his win here in June which came only two days after seeing the track for the first time, Hamlin admitted that he’d used a video game to help him gain an edge. The first question of everyone’s mind Friday was if he had used the game again.

“No, I didn't have enough time to do it this week,” Hamlin said. “Actually, we ran faster, so maybe I need to stay off of it.”

Denny Hamlin smiles after claiming the pole with a qualifying lap of 169.827 mph for the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., Friday, July 21, 2006.
(AP Photo/Russ Hamilton)
Pennsylvania 500 Lineup
Hamlin is in the thick of the hunt for the Chase for the championship, only 7 points behind his teammate Tony Stewart and 18 point away from Greg Biffle who sits in the 10th position. Hamlin has gained enough experience in his rookie year to know what he needs to do to climb into the top ten.

“We didn't have a top 5 team last year (in the Busch Series),” Hamlin said. “We had about a 10th to 15th place team, but I learned to finish races. That's what it's all about. The points, the way the structure of the points system is, it's all about finishing.”

Ryan Newman, who won the 37th pole of his career last week in New Hampshire, came within .4 of a second of pole number 38 Friday with a speed of 169.418 MPH. He’ll start on the outside front row in second.

Newman, who will most likely spend this year on the outside looking into the top ten, suffered through a miserable race at Loudon beginning with an early race tangle with Tony Stewart. The two drivers exchanged blame for the incident last week, but Friday Newman said that it’s all behind them.

-(Cont'd from front page) “We talked about it today, no issues,” Newman said. “We talked about going fishing. He invited me over to go fishing. Either he wants to drown me or he thinks I’m a good fishing buddy”

Kasey Kahne will start third, followed by Hendrick Motorsports teammates Brian Vickers and Jeff Gordon.

"I was real happy with it," Kahne said. "We went out early and had a pretty good lap. My car drove perfect and we were pretty close. We did a lot in practice today, and it drove better in practice than it did last time, too.

"I think we're looking forward to this weekend and have a good shot, hopefully battling with Denny (Hamlin). He's going to be pretty tough. He beat us again qualifying, and he's going to be tough in the race."

Point’s leader Jimmie Johnson, qualified 15th while Matt Kenseth, who trails Johnson by 68 points, starts 11th.

At the end of the qualifying session, Chad Chaffin bumped Jimmy Spencer from the field.

But Chaffin's time was disallowed after post-qualifying inspection, knocking him out of the race and putting Spencer back in.

Chaffin joins Derrike Cope, Stanton Barrett and Greg Sacks as those who did not qualify.

Sunday's race starts at 2:05 p.m. EDT and will be televised by TNT.

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