Ryan Blaney Wins Phoenix Pole for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Race

AVONDALE, AZ – RIS – Ryan Blaney, who is no stranger to winning the pole position at Phoenix Raceway, was fastest in qualifying Saturday afternoon for Sunday’s Ruoff Mortgage 500 NASCAR Cup race.  The Team Penske driver put up a 132.709mph lap to take pole position from Denny Hamlin. They were separated by 0.073s on the time charts. William Byron was third, Christopher Bell fourth and Almirola fifth. Chase Briscoe, Larson, Austin Cindric, Alex Bowman and Logano rounded out the top-ten.

There were two incidents during qualifying and before.  Ricky Stenhouse was unable to qualify due to mechanical problems.  He will start last.  Joey Logano lost control of his car, spinning across the start-finish line on his run.  Still, his speed was good enough to start 10th.

Blaney was fast in the abbreviated practice sessions which were broken up into two groups of cars and backed it up when qualifying.  Below is how they will start the race:

1 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Maytag Ford 27.127 132.709 1 1 0.000 0.000

2 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 27.200 132.353 1 1 0.073 0.073

3 24 William Byron Axalta Chevrolet 27.216 132.275 1 1 0.089 0.016

4 20 Christopher Bell Rheem - Capitol Container Toyota 27.217 132.270 1 1 0.090 0.001

5 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 27.276 131.984 1 1 0.149 0.059

6 14 Chase Briscoe Mahindra Tractors Ford 27.284 131.945 1 1 0.157 0.008

7 5 Kyle Larson Valvoline Chevrolet 27.285 131.941 1 1 0.158 0.001

8 2 Austin Cindric # Autotrader Ford 27.299 131.873 1 1 0.172 0.014

9 48 Alex Bowman Ally/Best Friends Chevrolet 27.320 131.772 1 1 0.193 0.021

10 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 27.709 129.922 1 1 0.582 0.389

Qualifying Round: 1A

1 24 William Byron Axalta Chevrolet 27.303 131.854 0 1 0.000 0.000

2 2 Austin Cindric # Autotrader Ford 27.359 131.584 0 1 0.056 0.056

3 14 Chase Briscoe Mahindra Tractors Ford 27.377 131.497 0 1 0.074 0.018

4 48 Alex Bowman Ally/Best Friends Chevrolet 27.412 131.329 0 1 0.109 0.035

5 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 27.478 131.014 0 1 0.175 0.066

6 45 Kurt Busch MoneyLion Toyota 27.505 130.885 0 1 0.202 0.027

7 9 Chase Elliott UniFirst Chevrolet 27.586 130.501 0 1 0.283 0.081

8 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 27.602 130.425 0 1 0.299 0.016

9 34 Michael McDowell Love's Travel Stops Ford 27.663 130.138 0 1 0.360 0.061

10 99 Daniel Suarez CommScope Chevrolet 27.669 130.110 0 1 0.366 0.006

11 21 Harrison Burton # DEX Imaging Ford 27.673 130.091 0 1 0.370 0.004

12 17 Chris Buescher ITsavvy Ford 27.714 129.898 0 1 0.411 0.041

13 23 Bubba Wallace ROOT Insurance Toyota 27.738 129.786 0 1 0.435 0.024

14 31 Justin Haley LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 27.765 129.660 0 1 0.462 0.027

15 16 AJ Allmendinger(i) Action Industries Chevrolet 27.806 129.468 0 1 0.503 0.041

16 7 Corey LaJoie Built.com Chevrolet 28.046 128.361 0 1 0.743 0.240

17 77 Landon Cassill(i) Voyager: Crypto for All Chevrolet 28.285 127.276 0 1 0.982 0.239

18 15 Garrett Smithley Jacob Companies Ford 29.193 123.317 0 1 1.890 0.908

Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed Lap # # Laps -Fastest -Next

*Required to qualify on time, OP - Top 30 in Owner Points, PC - Past Champion,(i)Ineligible for driver points in this series

Qualifying Round: 1B

1 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Maytag Ford 27.116 132.763 0 1 0.000 0.000

2 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 27.159 132.553 0 1 0.043 0.043

3 20 Christopher Bell Rheem - Capitol Container Toyota 27.170 132.499 0 1 0.054 0.011

4 5 Kyle Larson Valvoline Chevrolet 27.177 132.465 0 1 0.061 0.007

5 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 27.189 132.406 0 1 0.073 0.012

6 18 Kyle Busch DeWalt Toyota 27.254 132.091 0 1 0.138 0.065

7 8 Tyler Reddick Guaranteed Rate Chevrolet 27.323 131.757 0 1 0.207 0.069

8 3 Austin Dillon Get Bioethanol Chevrolet 27.360 131.579 0 1 0.244 0.037

9 43 Erik Jones FOCUSfactor Chevrolet 27.466 131.071 0 1 0.350 0.106

10 4 Kevin Harvick Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford 27.519 130.819 0 1 0.403 0.053

11 1 Ross Chastain K1 Speed Chevrolet 27.539 130.724 0 1 0.423 0.020

12 6 Brad Keselowski Violet Defense Ford 27.544 130.700 0 1 0.428 0.005

13 42 Ty Dillon Black Rifle Coffee Company Chevrolet 27.623 130.326 0 1 0.507 0.079

14 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Ford 27.691 130.006 0 1 0.575 0.068

15 51 Cody Ware Nurtec ODT Ford 28.288 127.262 0 1 1.172 0.597

16 38 Todd Gilliland # Frontline Enterprises Inc. Ford 28.299 127.213 0 1 1.183 0.011

17 78 BJ McLeod Premier Business Investments Ford 28.451 126.533 0 1 1.335 0.152

18 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Fry's/NOS Chevrolet 0.000 0.000 0 0