NASCAR News: Blaney wins Cup pole at Bristol

Ryan Blaney, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, claimed his 10th career NASCAR Cup Series pole in Saturday’s qualifying session at Bristol Motor Speedway, an achievement that stands as the 13th time a Team Penske driver will lead the field to green at the 0.533-mile short track.

The reigning series champion navigated the 0.533-mile short track in 15.356 seconds (124.954 mph) in the second round of qualifying to claim the pole position for Sunday’s Food City 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The second row will be comprised of last year’s Night Race winner Denny Hamlin and three-time BMS Cup winner Joey Logano. Chase Elliott will start fifth in his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy.

“The track kind of caught everybody by surprise,” said Blaney, who earned his first Busch Light Pole Award since April 2022 at Richmond, his first at Bristol and the 10^th of his career,” said Blaney.

“The time fall-off and the grip loss behind the wheel was incredible. It was like ‘Who can not mess up a lap and still put a decent time down?’ Great to get our first pole of the year, and ready to go tomorrow.”

Blaney’s Team Penske Ford was 0.020 seconds faster than the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Mustang of second-place qualifier Josh Berry (124.792 mph). Toyota driver Denny Hamlin was third fastest at 124.178 mph.

Team Penske’s Joey Logano qualified fourth, giving Ford drivers three of the top four starting spots. Chase Elliott was fifth in the fastest Chevrolet.

Blaney ran the fastest lap of the day in the first round (15.134 second) and opted not to try a second lap in the opening session. That strategy paid off, given the dramatic fall-off most drivers experienced in the money round.

“I think that was a big advantage for us,” said Blaney, who leads the series standings after finishing second, third and fifth in his last three races. “We got the good fortune of going out last in our group, so I could bail after one lap if we were in…

“A lot of teams and drivers, us included, are going to be really scratching our heads tonight, like, ‘What’s the track going to do tomorrow?’”

“Proud of this whole Menards group. Our Ford Mustang was fast all day – really good in Round 1 [of qualifying] and made some adjustments for the second round,” added Blaney.

“The track really caught everybody by surprise, honestly. The time fall-off and grip loss behind the wheel was incredible, it was huge.

“So it was, like, who could not mess up a lap and still put a decent time down? That was fun, it was fun working through it. I wish I could do it over again and try to make our car even better because I think there was still some more out there.

“Proud of everybody at Menards, Ford, Advance Auto Parts, DEX Imaging, Wabash, Wurth and everybody that makes it possible. It’s cool to get our first pole of the year and excited to get going tomorrow.”

Starting Grid