Denny Hamlin won the pole for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 6, putting himself first on the grid for Sunday’s 400-mile NASCAR Cup Series race. His lap of 36.901 seconds was just 0.018 seconds quicker than Carson Hocevar’s run for second.
That tiny margin is why Hamlin’s name mattered immediately on June 6: the qualifying session set the starting order for a race scheduled for June 7, and the front row belonged to two drivers separated by less than two-hundredths of a second. The FireKeepers Casino 400 will be shown nationally on Amazon Prime Video, with HBO MAX offering in-car camera streams for each driver.
Josh Berry’s run added a jolt of uncertainty to the session. Berry spun during his qualifying lap and did not record a time, leaving him set to start 37th in the 400-mile race. The full starting lineup for Sunday’s race at Michigan was released, and the top 10 included three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas and three Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets.
For Hamlin, the pole gives him the best possible opening at Michigan, but qualifying also left one question hanging: what happened to his car after the lap that raised concerns about its condition is not answered. The race was scheduled to go green on June 7, with the starting order now locked in and Berry forced to come from deep in the field.
