Hamlin wins poll at Alabama

Associated Press

HAMPTON, Ga.

Denny Hamlin started chasing the championship during qualifying Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Mired in a bit of a midseason slump, Hamlin showed signs of turning things around by claiming the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race with a speed of 187.380 mph. He edged traditionally strong qualifier Ryan Newman, who’ll start from the outside of the front row after a lap of 187.070.

The rest of the top five for the Emory Healthcare 500 was Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.

“I’m a very bad qualifier,” Hamlin said, “so I’ll take it.”

He claimed the eighth pole of his career and the 50th for Joe Gibbs Racing, which won its first pole with Bobby Labonte at Martinsville in 1995.

Hamlin has five wins this season, but it’s been nearly three months since his last victory. He’s coming off a 34th-place finish at Bristol and is fifth in the point standings.

While that’s still safely within the 12-driver Chase for the Championship, which will be set at Richmond next week, Hamlin wants to recapture the dominance he showed over a 10-race stretch that included five wins and two other top-five finishes.