INDIANAPOLIS -- Denny Hamlin was seven laps from capturing the one NASCAR ‘crown jewel’ race that has eluded him during his illustrious career the last time the Cup series raced on the oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In NASCAR’s return to turning competitive laps Saturday for qualifying ahead of the Brickyard 400, a driver Hamlin employs edged him from the pole.

Tyler Reddick, who won the Cup race two years ago held on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course from pole, will lead the field to green for Sunday’s long-awaited Brickyard 400, where Hamlin’s own No. 11 Toyota, or the No. 45 he co-owns under 23XI Racing, have strong shots to contend at the front.

"If I tear it up, he's paying for it," Reddick joked Saturday about the potential of racing hard with his car owner on Sunday. "I try not to use that against him, but I do feel like we race each other very fair but hard. I've learned a lot about racing from him, so I think we've got a good level of mutual respect and trust with one another.

"Obviously when you come to a place like this, I know how bad he wants to win here, and I know how bad I want to win here. It's just something that's got to be managed throughout the whole day and we'll just see how it goes."

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Hendrick Motorsports, whose namesake Rick Hendrick will serve as Sunday’s honorary pace car driver, locked out the second row with Chase Elliott – the son of 2002 Brickyard winner Bill Elliott – and William Byron. Kyle Larson, who already raced on the IMS oval this year in his debut Indianapolis 500, will start 5th – the same spot he qualified back in May.

Ty Gibbs (6^th), Ryan Blaney (7^th), Michael McDowell (8^th), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (9^th) and John Hunter Nemechek (10^th) round out the top-10 of Sunday’s starting grid.

At a track where, with NASCAR's previous generations of cars, passing has been at a premium, Reddick said Saturday's pole performance meant that much more. After Friday's lone practice, he and other drivers noted that passing was possible and drivers could get runs in the draft, but Reddick forecasts that Sunday's race will be more about methodically working through the field and executing perfect laps turn after turn, rather than Hail Mary moves and big bursts through the pack.

"When cars are kinda stacked up with one another, there will be opportunities to pass," he said. "Like we saw in qualifying, it's easy to make mistakes, and drivers will have opportunities to pass, but if you take five of the strongest cars and line them up, I think it would be really hard for the guy in fifth to make a charge and get through all of them.

"You're really counting on somebody to make a mistake or get too aggressive and lose the nose or get loose to really make a move."

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The trio of former Brickyard 400 winners starting Sunday’s race will have a lot of work to do, should they wish to repeat. Brad Keselowski, who delivered current track owner Roger Penske his first Brickyard 400 victory in 2018, starts on the outside of Row 13 in 26^th. Multi-time winners Jimmie Johnson (four) and Kyle Busch (two) will share Row 17 in 33^rd and 34^th, respectively.

Sunday’s return to the IMS oval, which marks the 30^th anniversary of Jeff Gordon’s first of five wins in NASCAR’s inaugural visit, starts with the scheduled green flag at 2:30 p.m. on NBC.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Tyler Reddick captures Brickyard 400 pole in NASCAR's return to IMS oval