Coming into the race at Chicago, no one could point their finger at a single driver when it came to a favorite to take the pole. Not even Denny Hamlin, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who eventually did grab the pole for the landmark event. Now that he has an advantage over the rest of the field, he should be at ease for Sunday’s race, right? Well, that does not seem to be the case.
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While speaking with the press, Hamlin mentioned how despite being delighted he wished to approach the race in a cautious manner, something that has been a common theme among all drivers.
Denny Hamlin scores pole during the first-ever NASCAR street course race
Hamlin set an incredible pace, leading the field with 89.557 mph, thereby scoring his 39th career pole, 3rd in the season, and the first in a street course-style circuit. He placed his Joe Gibbs Racing car just ahead of 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick.
Hamlin was proud to have won at this specific track, citing how there was no, “veteran advantage.” As per Speedsport, Hamlin mentioned, “Just the overall performance of our team today. From lap one of practice to the last lap of qualifying, we just have been strong on a track that is really tough and everyone had to learn it at the same rate of speed.”
While he will be starting the race out front, he still remains cautious about the race on Sunday. This is especially after looking at the problems faced by drivers such as Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott when they crashed out during their qualification runs.
Hamlin plans to approach the Chicago Street race in a cautious manner
According to NASCAR, Hamlin stated, “I mean, we definitely made a big shift into the restart zone for the road courses because we have looked kind of bad on some of these late-race restarts. Moving it back to create a corner to then spread out the field slightly.”
“Trust me, it’s still going to be crazy into Turn 1, but it’s just going to hopefully take us from not being bozos. That’s the goal. It still may happen, but I certainly think that you don’t really want to play a whole lot of games when it comes to that because it’s not good for anyone. It really isn’t.”
Despite the incredible result, it is only logical to approach the main race with caution. After all, looking at some of the wrecks that took place over the weekend, it would be obvious that more incidents are bound to occur during the main race.
