Qualifying report

NASCAR Cup Las Vegas Chase race starting lineup: Denny Hamlin earns pole in JGR 1-2-3-4

Joe Gibbs Racing was back on top in Las Vegas qualifying, with Hamlin leading a sweep of the top four positions by JGR cars

Denny Hamlin has answered Kyle Larson in the intensifying battle for the NASCAR Cup Series championship, rocketing to pole position at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hamlin lapped the 1.5-mile track in 28.910s, just 0.017s clear of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs for the top spot. Hamlin has won the last two Cup races at Vegas, and is trying to win three in-a-row on Sunday to erase his 26-point deficit to Larson.

"It was good," said Hamlin. "It had a lot of really good characteristics of cars I've had here in the past, and I thought we improved on that slightly this time around. I feel like it's pretty good. We have a long way to go, but that's a great start."

It was another pair of JGR cars directly behind them, as Christopher Bell qualified third and Chase Briscoe fourth, with 23XI's Tyler Reddick making it a sweep of the top five starting spots in fifth.

Championship leader Kyle Larson will start sixth, leading the way for Chevrolet, while Austin Cindric leads the way for Ford in seventh.

William Byron, Bubba Wallace, and Carson Hocevar filled out the remainder of the top ten.

The two lowest-starting Chase drivers both belong to Team Penske, with Ryan Blaney in 20th and teammate Joey Logano 23rd.

Qualifying went incident-free, but two cars did not take part -- the No. 4 of Noah Gragson and the No. 21 of Josh Berry, as both crashed in practice.

Watch: Josh Berry hits wall hard during Las Vegas practice

NASCAR Cup Las Vegas Chase race starting lineup

cla	#	driver	manufacturer	time	gap	mph
1	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	28.910		186.787
2	54	Ty Gibbs	Toyota	28.927	0.017	186.677
3	20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	28.998	0.088	186.220
4	19	Chase Briscoe	Toyota	29.011	0.101	186.136
5	45	Tyler Reddick	Toyota	29.015	0.105	186.111
6	5	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	29.054	0.144	185.861
7	2	Austin Cindric	Ford	29.144	0.234	185.287
8	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	29.153	0.243	185.230
9	23	Darrell Wallace Jr	Toyota	29.177	0.267	185.077
10	77	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet	29.185	0.275	185.027
11	7	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	29.211	0.301	184.862
12	60	Ryan Preece	Ford	29.279	0.369	184.433
13	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	29.280	0.370	184.426
14	17	Chris Buescher	Ford	29.340	0.430	184.049
15	48	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	29.360	0.450	183.924
16	71	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	29.387	0.477	183.755
17	1	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	29.387	0.477	183.755
18	6	Brad Keselowski	Ford	29.387	0.477	183.755
19	16	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	29.426	0.516	183.511
20	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	29.431	0.521	183.480
21	43	Erik Jones	Toyota	29.478	0.568	183.187
22	35	Riley Herbst	Toyota	29.488	0.578	183.125
23	22	Joey Logano	Ford	29.490	0.580	183.113
24	41	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	29.573	0.663	182.599
25	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Chevrolet	29.586	0.676	182.519
26	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Chevrolet	29.675	0.765	181.971
27	34	Todd Gilliland	Ford	29.695	0.785	181.849
28	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	29.716	0.806	181.720
29	10	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	29.773	0.863	181.372
30	38	Zane Smith	Ford	29.788	0.878	181.281
31	88	Connor Zilisch	Chevrolet	29.895	0.985	180.632
32	42	John Hunter Nemechek	Toyota	29.942	1.032	180.349
33	33	Austin Hill	Chevrolet	30.055	1.145	179.671
34	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	30.259	1.349	178.459
35	4	Noah Gragson	Ford	--	--	--
36	21	Josh Berry	Ford	--	--	--