Heading into Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, only seven drivers remain mathematically alive in the Chase for the championship. On Saturday, Denny Hamlin, the runner-up driver in the standings, took a crucial pole position for Sunday's event.

Hamlin was able to crank out a 19.226-second (98.492 mph) lap around the 0.526-mile Virginia short track known affectionately as the paper clip, which was fast enough to secure Hamlin his sixth pole position of the season by a margin of 0.049 seconds over Ty Gibbs, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.

Gibbs is no longer mathematically alive in the championship race.

Hamlin, who comes into the weekend trailing Kyle Larson, the series point leader, by 73 points, needs to make up points in a hurry. He'll now have a chance to potentially rack up some early Stage Points, and if all goes well, perhaps he can take a win.

While it was a big deal for Hamlin to score the pole, Larson, who was only able to muster the 29th-fastest lap of Saturday's practice session, was able to click off an impressive qualifying lap in his own right. Larson slotted in with the third-fastest lap in the qualifying session, which will put him on the inside of Row 2 at the start of Sunday's race at Martinsville.

If Larson exits Sunday's race with a point lead of 75 points or more, he'll lock up the championship a week early.

Austin Cindric, who had been enjoying a solid Chase prior to an early exit in a crash at Talladega Superspeedway a week ago, will start from the fourth position in Sunday's race. Cindric is no longer alive in the championship fight.

Joey Logano, another of the seven drivers eligible to collect the Bill France Cup, will start fifth.

Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Josh Berry rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Sunday's Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Other drivers mathematically in the hunt for the championship, who will start outside of the top-10 on Sunday include Chase Briscoe (11th), Tyler Reddick (12th), Ryan Blaney (13th), and Christopher Bell (14th).