Denny Hamlin enters Sunday's Chase race with troubles to handle. Most notably, he will begin the Texas AAA 500 from a poor position on pit road.
Stuck in 17th place on the starting grid, Hamlin was penalized after his car failed inspection. That triggered a rule that prevented Hamlin from making a pit stall selection according to his starting position. Hamlin got pit stall No. 7, behind the No. 88 Chevrolet of Alex Bowman and in front of the No. 43 Ford of Aric Almirola.
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It was not the best qualifying run for Hamlin, who with teammate Matt Kenseth is tied for second on the Chase grid. Another teammate, Kyle Busch, is fourth as Joe Gibbs Racing tries to place three drivers in the final four for Nov. 20's championship race at Homestead-Miami.
Hamlin said he knew his car didn't have the grip it needed to reach Friday's final round of qualifying.
"We knew it would be a shot in the dark for us to go out here and contend for the pole," Hamlin told media members. "Hopefully we will have something good in race trim and will go out and race for it."
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Hamlin didn't show much speed in Saturday's first practice. At 182.346 mph, he was the slowest of the Gibbs drivers and among the eight Chase contenders.
Busch, the defending Cup champion, had to go to his backup car in qualifying after a tire failure led to a crash. He then had to drop out of qualifying with a coolant leak after the second round.
Kenseth starts seventh, best among the four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers.
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Carl Edwards enters the Texas race last among the eight Chase participants and starts ninth. Busch starts 24th.
Jimmie Johnson won the Round of 8's first race to reach the championship race at Homestead. Chase drivers who win at Texas and Nov. 13 at Phoenix will also make the final four.
Sunday's AAA Texas 500 begins about 2:15 p.m. ET. TV coverage is by NBC.