New Delhi, June 8 -- BROOKLYN, Mich. - The question at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday is not whether Denny Hamlin can win the FireKeepers Casino 400. He has done it before - last year, from the front. The question is whether he can do it again starting dead last.

Hamlin earned the pole Friday, his 51st career Cup Series pole and second at Michigan, clocking a lap at 195.117 mph to edge Carson Hocevar and Tyler Reddick to the top of the qualifying sheet. Then pre-race inspection flagged a violation on the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and NASCAR sent him to the rear before the green flag even flew. It is the kind of sequence that would deflate most drivers. Hamlin arrived at the track Sunday already talking about 200 laps of ...