NASCAR: Charlotte starting lineup – Denny Hamlin takes pole

Denny Hamlin took the pole position for the final race of the round of 12 of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin has officially taken the pole position for the third and final race of the round of 12 of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, the Bank of America Roval 400.

As calculated earlier this week, the driver of the #11 Toyota took the pole position for this 109-lap race around the 17-turn, 2.28-mile (3.669-kilometer) roval in Concord, North Carolina due to NASCAR’s starting lineup formula, which has now been used on nine occasions. Hamlin has taken the last two pole positions using this formula.

Hamlin earned this pole position by having the best combination of most recent race result (50% weight, with 25% based on the car’s result and 25% based on the driver’s result), position in the owner standings (35% weight), and rank of his fastest lap in the most recent race (15% weight) among the 12 remaining championship contenders.

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He won the most recent race at Talladega Superspeedway, and his #11 team leads the owner standings after overtaking the #4 team of Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, who had led the standings for 27 consecutive races.

Hamlin’s fastest lap at Talladega Superspeedway ranked third among all drivers. He finished behind Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano in that category. They qualified in third and eighth place, respectively.

Set to start alongside Hamlin on the front row is Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott. Elliott’s fastest lap behind the wheel of the #9 Chevrolet only ranked 26th at Talladega Superspeedway, but he finished in fifth place. The #9 team now sits in third in the owner standings as well.

None of the other remaining playoff drivers even finished the race at Talladega Superspeedway in the top 11, so Hamlin and Elliott comfortably locked out the front row.

Notably, they both finished in the top two in the most recent road course race at the Daytona International Speedway road course back in August, with Elliott winning to secure his third consecutive road course victory.

Keselowski took the third starting position for the race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval by having the fastest lap at Talladega Superspeedway behind the wheel of his #2 Ford and due to the fact that the #2 team sits in fourth place in the owner standings. He only finished in 18th. He is set to start alongside Harvick in fourth.

Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron actually had the third best mathematical outcome in the starting lineup formula, but because of the fact that he has already been eliminated from championship contention, he is set to start in 13th place.

Here is the full starting lineup for the 2020 Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.

Starting Lineup
1st – Denny Hamlin
2nd – Chase Elliott
3rd – Brad Keselowski
4th – Kevin Harvick
5th – Alex Bowman
6th – Austin Dillon
7th – Martin Truex Jr.
8th – Joey Logano
9th – Kyle Busch
10th – Kurt Busch
11th – Clint Bowyer
12th – Aric Almirola
13th – William Byron
14th – Erik Jones
15th – Ryan Newman
16th – Tyler Reddick
17th – Ty Dillon
18th – Ryan Preece
19th – John Hunter Nemechek
20th – Matt DiBenedetto
21st – Chris Buescher
22nd – Brennan Poole
23rd – Matt Kenseth
24th – Ryan Blaney
25th – Quin Houff
26th – Bubba Wallace
27th – Timmy Hill
28th – Cole Custer
29th – Joey Gase
30th – Jimmie Johnson
31st – Michael McDowell
32nd – Corey LaJoie
33rd – J.J. Yeley
34th – Daniel Suarez
35th – Christopher Bell
36th – Gray Gaulding
37th – James Davison
38th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Tune in to NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, October 11 for the live broadcast of the 2020 Bank of America Roval 400 from the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.