Denny Hamlin beats Kyle Busch for pole at Bristol

Denny Hamlin won two pole awards on Friday at Bristol. His teammate Kyle Busch qualfied second twice as well.

Hamlin set a track record at Bristol on Friday with a lap of 130.407 MPH to edge out Busch and will start first for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race. Just about 90 minutes before Hamlin won the pole for the Cup race, he qualified first for Friday night’s Xfinity Series race. Yep, Busch starts second there too.

Their Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards will start third, giving the team another impressive effort in a summer that they’ve owned. The team’s cars have been the fastest in the Cup Series over the last few weeks and Friday was the second-straight time the team has had the top three qualifiers. The only question is if the speed will carry over when the Chase begins in September at Chicago.

Toyota also had the top four starting spots. David Ragan, driving for Michael Waltrip Racing and a driver who helped subbed for Busch while he was recovering from injuries he suffered in February, qualified fourth. Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing’s other driver and Sunday’s race winner at Michigan, qualified 13th, just missing out on the final round of qualifying.

Busch has been one of the best drivers at Bristol in recent memory. If he gets a win on Saturday night he’ll have a series-leading five wins. The only driver to win all three (Camping World Truck Series, Xfinity, Sprint Cup) races in a Bristol weekend, Busch finished second in the Truck Series race on Wednesday night.

The pole also means it’s a happy return to Bristol for Hamlin. He was forced to get out of the car in March during a rain delay after he had a spasm in his neck. He was replaced by JGR development driver Erik Jones, who turned his first NASCAR green flag laps at Bristol in his first time in a Cup car.

Hamlin also gets this, uh, unique trophy.

Which #NASCAR Cup driver will take home this piece of hardware? #BassProQual #ItsBristolBa… http://t.co/OrJ0SAEbxk pic.twitter.com/3bhfFmjsx0

— BristolMotorSpeedway (@BMSupdates) August 21, 2015