Hamlin seals home pole.

Virginia native Denny Hamlin claimed his second Coors Light Pole Award of the 2008 season in his home state by securing top spot on the starting grid for Saturday night's Crown Royal 400 at the Richmond International Raceway.

Chesterfield, VA born Hamlin, who considers the three-quarter mile Richmond bullring his home circuit, knocked Mark Martin off the top of the pile half way through Friday evening's qualifying session with a lap of 21.395-seconds (126.198mph).

With temperatures dropping off considerably as the session wore on many of the drivers who qualified after Hamlin couldn't generate the same levels of grip from their tyres leaving the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota drivers position relatively unchallenged.

Martin, who was the third of 47 drivers to take their qualifying run, held on for second place on the grid in his #8 DEI Chevrolet with teammate Martin Truex Jr and Gillett-Evernham's Patrick Carpentier on row two.

Carpentier's fourth place effort was especially impressive considering that he, along with the rest of the 'go or go homers' had to qualify at the end of the session when in theory the track was at its slowest.

Reed Sorenson and Juan Montoya locked out row three for Chip Ganassi Racing with Hamlin's teammate Kyle Busch and the other two Gillett-Evernham entries in the shape of Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne completing the top nine.

Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman will start tenth ahead of Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson with Tony Stewart 15th, Carl Edwards 19th and Dale Earnhardt Jr 22nd on the second anniversary of his last Cup Series race victory.

Matt Kenseth (24th), Jeff Gordon (28th) and Jeff Burton (33rd) were among a lengthy list of potential race winners who have left themselves a major task in the race while Dave Blaney, AJ Allmendinger, Talladega pole winner Joe Nemechek, the returning Johnny Sauter, Sterling Marlin, Kyle Petty and JJ Yeley will simply be happy to have a major task ahead of them after beating the qualifying gauntlet and successfully qualifying for the race on speed.

Ken Schrader, who qualified the #70 Haas CNC entry third on the grid last weekend failed to qualify the #40 Chip Ganassi Dodge this time and he joined Scott Wimmer, John Andretti and Jon Wood on the DNQ list.