Hamlin hustles around Chicagoland for pole

Joliet, IL (Sports Network) - Denny Hamlin won the pole for this afternoon's USG Durock 300 Busch Series race at the Chicagoland Speedway. The No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet driver circled the 1.5-mile oval in 30.083 seconds (179.503 m.p.h.).
The pole victory was Hamlin's fourth of the season and 10th of his Busch career.
Starting with Hamlin on the front row will be series points leader Carl Edwards who posted a time of 30.114 seconds.
Edwards is the man to beat in 2007 as he jogs to his first Busch Series championship. On the back of 15 top-10s and a series-leading four wins, Edwards has a stranglehold on the driving title - by 798 points. The all-time winning margin is 824 points which Kevin Harvick set last year.
Aric Almirola (30.210) and Kasey Kahne (30.302) will start in row two.
This week's Busch Series race at Chicagoland is likely to see a first-time winner make the turn into Victory Lane. In six previous races, there have been four first-time winners.
In 2001, Jimmie Johnson won the only Busch race of his career. The next year, Johnny Sauter held off late charges from Todd Bodine and Jeff Burton. Skip to 2004 and Justin Labonte won his first and only Busch race squeezing out every drop of fuel to get to the checkered flag. Casey Mears became the fourth member of the club one year ago when he beat Edwards to the checkers.
A possible choice for this year's first-timer would be Brad Keselowski. After a great run substituting for Ted Musgrave in a Craftsman Truck race, he will get a shot behind the wheel of Jr. Motorsports' No.88 U.S. Navy Chevrolet.
The 24-year-old made 13 starts for a smaller team - Keith Coleman Racing before it suspended its operations. When Musgrave was suspended for one race because of an on-track incident, Keselowski finally got the chance to compete in a top quality, competitive truck.
Keselowski won the pole, led four different times for a total of 62 laps and contended for the win.
"I've watched Brad for a while and he's shown a lot of promise in the few Busch races he's run," said Earnhardt Jr. on the team's website. "He became available at a time when we were looking to make some changes to our program and everything just lined up for us to put him in the Navy Chevrolet for the next three races."
The race is set to drop the green flag at 3 p.m. (et).