BROOKLYN, Mich. – Denny Hamlin sat in a chair on the far side of Michigan International Speedway’s media center, his left hand resting on his face in a fist.
Hamlin silently watched a TV mounted on a wall.
The TV was showing Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota as it raced around the 2-mile speedway, the final car to make a run in the second round of qualifying.
Moments after Wallace crossed the finish line, Hamlin looked to his right at another TV that showed timing and scoring.
“Damn,” Hamlin said, before standing up. “Holy shit, that’s fast.”
Hamlin, co-owner at 23XI Racing, knew before his driver did that Wallace had just claimed his first career NASCAR Cup Series pole.
.@dennyhamlin watches @bubbawallace’s first #NASCAR Cup pole run.
“Damn…..holy shit.”#NASCAR #FireKeepersCasino400 pic.twitter.com/iXokRmRYiq
— Daniel McFadin (@danielmcfadin) August 6, 2022
Wallace blistered MIS with a top speed of 190.703 mph. He was the only driver to top 190 mph.
But as he slowed his car, Wallace was “kind of dejected.”
Met by silence over his team radio, Wallace thought he had screwed up the lap.
“I came off turn 4 on the first run, and I was like, ‘wow,’ and that’s all I said, just to kind of create some suspense for the team,” Wallace said. “And they were like, ‘Oh, what the hell?’ And I knew it was a good lap. I said, ‘great car.’ And I didn’t want to jinx it (on the final round). I didn’t want to be like, ‘oh, man, that felt like a pole run’ and it’d be for P5, right? And so I come across the line and … silence and I was like, ‘great, I just botched this lap somehow.’”
It turned out Wallace had just been tuned to the wrong channel.
The error fixed, Wallace asked his team “what did we get?”
When he was told he had won the pole, Wallace erupted with “Let’s gooo! I appreciate ya’ll!”
For Wallace, the pole was “a sigh of relief” for him.
“Just pumped, proud moment, proud of myself,” Wallace said.
The pole comes in Wallace’s 171st career start. It’s also the latest in a string of success for the No. 23 team, as Wallace has put together a career-best three race streak of top-10 finishes, including a fifth last weekend on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
“Proud of my team continuing to show up and battle and give it all we got,” Wallace said. “We know that’s the obviously the goal every time you start a season, and no matter what’s thrown at…
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