Denny Hamlin picked up right where he left off in the fall at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The defending South Point 400 winner and pole sitter earned the top starting position for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, turning a lap of 28.910 seconds at 186.787 mph Saturday in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
The pole is Hamlin’s second in 30 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the 53rd of his Cup Series career. It also marks his fifth pole and 19th top-10 start of the 2026 season.
“I couldn’t have asked for today to go much better than it did.” Hamlin said. “I think that what we had today is what we’ll have tomorrow – and I liked my car today.”
The strong qualifying effort comes at an important time for Hamlin, who enters Sunday’s race 26 points behind Kyle Larson in the chase standings. Starting at the front gives Hamlin an early advantage as he looks to close that gap and continue his pursuit of his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs will start alongside Hamlin on the front row after qualifying second with a lap of 28.927 seconds at 186.677 mph. Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe made it a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the first two rows, and will start third and fourth. Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five in another Toyota with a lap at 186.111 mph.
Current points leader Kyle Larson will start sixth in the No. 5 Kyle Busch Tribute Chevrolet after posting a lap of 29.054 seconds at 185.861 mph. Hamlin is already a three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and will have an opportunity to add another victory Sunday from the best seat in the house.
The 2026 Fall NASCAR Chase Weekend runs Oct. 2–4 and features the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase Race on Saturday and the South Point 400 on Sunday, along with driver appearances and fan activities throughout the property. Tickets and more information are available at LVMS.com.
Full South Point 400 Starting Lineup
- Denny Hamlin
- Ty Gibbs
- Christopher Bell
- Chase Briscoe
- Tyler Reddick
- Kyle Larson
- Austin Cindric
- William Byron
- Bubba Wallace
- Carson Hocevar
- Daniel Suarez
- Ryan Preece
- Chase Elliott
- Chris Buescher
- Alex Bowman
- Brad Keselowski
- Ross Chastain
- Michael McDowell
- AJ Allmendinger
- Ryan Blaney
- Erik Jones
- Riley Herbst
- Joey Logano
- Cole Custer
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Todd Gilliland
- Austin Dillon
- Ty Dillon
- Zane Smith
- Connor Zilisch
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Austin Hill
- Cody Ware
- Josh Berry
- Noah Gragson
