Denny Hamlin is the oldest to win pole at Martinsville Speedway, Kyle Larson qualifies third

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) — With his career-best sixth pole position this season, Denny Hamlin made NASCAR history while trying to put the brakes on Kyle Larson’s potentially historic run in the Chase.

Hamlin, who will turn 46 on Nov. 18, became the oldest pole sitter in 156 Cup Series races at Martinsville Speedway, turning a 98.492-mph lap on the 0.526-mile oval to beat Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs (98.241).

“That’s awesome,” said Hamlin, who is 5 months older than Morgan Shepherd was when he won the April 1987 pole. “There’s times I feel like Father Time’s catching up. If that’s true, then you wouldn’t have been able to sit on six poles. It’s what drives me that I’ve got a shot and still am decent enough. So I’d love to keep setting those old man records.”

Larson qualified third at 98.114 mph and reiterated that he isn’t expecting to become the first Chase driver to clinch the championship ahead of the season finale. He has a 73-point lead on Hamlin with Martinsville and the Nov. 8 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway remaining.

“I think everybody else is convinced that we’re going to lock it up here this weekend,” said Larson, who noted that Hamlin would have gained a maximum 76 points at Martinsville if he had finished one spot better in the March 29 race that was won by Chase Elliott. “Denny’s really good here. I’m more just kind of looking at it like how to keep it up front to leave myself a buffer for next week. We’ll see how the race plays out, but that’s kind of my mindset. Denny’s definitely a much better short track racer than me.”

Five of Hamlin’s series-high six wins at Martinsville have been from the pole position.

“Our job is to stay out in front of (Larson) and then just make them think and just maybe this trickles down to a reasonable number,” he said. “You need to gain 25, 30 points probably to even have a remote feeling of optimism, and even that is probably a stretch."

Teammates Christopher Bell (qualified 14th) and Chase Briscoe (11th) will start behind Larson as the next two drivers after Hamlin in the Chase standings.

Austin Cindric qualified fourth ahead of Penske teammate Joey Logano, who is seeking to become the first driver since Rusty Wallace in 1993 to win three consecutive Cup races on short tracks.

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Denny Hamlin (11) leads Tyler Reddick on the 30th lap during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026, in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Heavy rains starting Saturday evening were expected to bring a threat of flash flooding to already saturated areas of the U.S. Southwest through Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

As much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain could fall across the region, where a number of weather systems have brought a deadly autumn of soaking rains. Several people were rescued from floodwaters Friday in Arizona and Nevada.

“It’s not going to take much rainfall to be impactful at all in some of these locations just because of how saturated they are,” said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

The National Weather Service has issued flood watches for nearly all of Arizona and parts of southern Utah, southwestern Colorado, and western New Mexico, in addition to part of southern Nevada. Those watches include the Four Corners region, a sparsely populated area where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet that has been hit especially hard by recent rains.

Santorelli said this weekend's rain was expected to bring both flash flooding and small-stream flooding.

The Phoenix Fire Department said in a post on X that it rescued people from four vehicles on flooded streets on Friday night, while a fire captain in nearby Scottsdale said on Facebook that crews were rescuing a person in one vehicle on a flooded street when another vehicle carrying two people drove into the same waters and had to be rescued.

Scottsdale fire Capt. Dave Folio said in a video posted on Facebook that just 2 inches (5 centimeters) of water can "sweep your vehicle off its wheels,'' and that the vehicles were in 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters) of water.

Crews in Henderson, Nevada, conducted three swift-water rescues during a downpour in the city just outside of Las Vegas on Friday afternoon, a city spokesperson told media outlets. One person was rescued from the top of their vehicle after it became stuck in floodwaters, two people were rescued from a vehicle swept from the roadway by floodwaters, and a person in a wash was rescued but then went into cardiac arrest and died at a hospital.

In western Arizona, heavy rains on Friday in Bullhead City left water, rocks and debris on streets across the city and closed parks, the city said in Facebook posts.

A delivery driver goes through a flooded road on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, in Henderson, Nev. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)