Now how long will he stay there, this track has those long curves and someone just may shift gears in a turn and pass.
From the time he was a rookie in 2006 and swept both races from the pole, Denny Hamlin has always loved Pocono Raceway.
Eight years later, through a change in manufacturers, three different generations of race cars, a repave and a reconfiguration on the curbing in the Tunnel Turn, the Virginia native is still pretty sporty at the 2.5-mile triangle of a track.
Friday afternoon, Hamlin won the pole for Sunday's Pocono 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, setting a new track record, the ninth of the season, with a lap of 181.415 miles per hour in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
It was a great lap for Hamlin, allowing him to capture his second pole of the season. Other than still being fast here, though, not much is the same from when Hamlin dominated as a rookie in 2006.
updated by @johnny-mallonee: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM