The pole victory was Hamlin's first of the season, second at RIR and sixth of his Sprint Cup career.

"Richmond, I mean, that is in the woods of my hometown right there, 15 minutes away," said Hamlin. "And so, yeah, I'm going to have a lot of friends and family out there. So everyone knows that this is my Indy."

Starting on the front row with Hamlin will be veteran Mark Martin, who posted a time of 21.423 seconds.

Martin Truex Jr. (21.456) and rookie Patrick Carpentier (21.458) will make up row two.

At the top of the charts are points leader Jeff Burton, two-time winner Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hamlin. The four drivers are within 100 points of each other and the way they are performing are seemingly pretty safe to make the "Chase." All four have at least six top-10s to their credit with "Junior" leading the way with a series-high seven.

Two-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson leads the second group of four drivers (also Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle) who are between 102 and 199 points behind Burton.

However, the race for the final four positions is a free-for-all in which at least 10 drivers are contenders, including Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon.

And that list of 18 drivers doesn't include such perennial "Chase" drivers as Matt Kenseth or Kurt Busch. Driving the No.17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, Kenseth has never missed the "Chase" while Busch won the it all in 2004 and has qualified for the "playoffs" in three of four years.

Other drivers of note and their starting positions: Juan Pablo Montoya (sixth), Kyle Busch (seventh), Kasey Kahne (ninth), Harvick (11th), Johnson (12th), Stewart (15th), Edwards (19th), Earnhardt Jr. (22nd), Gordon (28th) and Burton (33rd).

The race is scheduled to drop the green flag on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (et).