CHICAGO — Denny Hamlin won the pole for Sunday’s inaugural Cup race on the streets of Chicago and called it “probably my single best day at the racetrack in all my career.”
Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner, explained what he meant.
“Just going into a race that, obviously, has got a ton of hype, there’s a ton of eyes looking at this race. Just the overall performance of our team today, from Lap 1 of practice to the last lap of qualifying, has been strong on a track. That is really tough. Everyone has had to learn it at the same rate of speed.
“No one has got a veteran advantage at this type of racetrack. It’s just a very proud moment for our team to come here on equal footing with everyone and perform as good as they did today. I never felt like I had more speed in reserve than what I did today.”
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