Ryan Blaney will start on the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.Â
The Team Penske driver bested Denny Hamlin with a top speed of 132.709 mph around the 1-mile track. It is Blaney’s seventh career pole, his first since 2019 and his third at Phoenix.
“Good in race trim, was a happy, obviously, with the speed in qualifying,” Blaney told Fox Sports. “I saw everybody not going as fast, maybe, and was like “I’ll just try to hit the same lap I did,’ I kind of gave a little back off (Turn) 4 but had enough cushion.”
Hamlin’s top speed was 132.353 mph.
The top five is completed by William Byron, Christopher Bell and Aric Almirola.
Click here for the starting lineup
Click here for qualifying results
Filling out the top 10 is Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric, Alex Bowman and Joey Logano.
Logano was the first car out in the final round. As he came to take the checkered flag, Logano got loose as he moved up the track, barely tagged the wall with his right rear and managed to keep from spinning.Â
Nine Cup teams failed pre-qualifying inspection. That resulted in each team losing pit selection and having one crew member ejected for the rest of the weekend.
Kyle Busch’s No. 18 – Car Chief, Nate Bellows
Garrett Smithley’s No. 15 – Car Chief, Robert Valentinsen
Tyler Reddick’s No. 8 – Car Chief, David Alexander
Landon Cassill’s No. 77 – Car Chief, JR Norris
Cole Custer’s No. 41 – Car Chief, Tony Cardamone
Christopher Bell’s No. 20 – Car Chief, Chris Sherwood
Todd Gilliland’s No. 38 – Engineer, Troy Raker
Erik Jones’ No. 43 – Engineer, Danny Efland
Ty Dillon’s No. 42 – Car Chief, Cam Strader
Practice
Prior to qualifying, teams took part in two 20-minute practice sessions with the field divided in two.
Overall, Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric, in Group A, posted the fastest speed at 131.090 mph. Cindric recorded 23 laps.
Second overall was Blaney in Group B (131.047 mph). Tyler Reddick, who was in Group B, was third overall (131.019).
“Well, that’s not bad, that’s good,” Reddick told Fox Sports, before addressing the ongoing issue of his legs falling asleep in recent races. “My legs felt a little better in the car, that was promising. I didn’t seem to feel any sort of (sensation) of the legs starting to get numb or tingling, so that’s a really good sign.”
The top five was completed by William Byron (131.014) and fall 2021 Phoenix winner Kyle Larson (130.738). Byron had the best 10-lap average at 130.050 mph, followed by Blaney and Larson.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s No. 47 team had to change his engine after the session. Stenhouse will have to start from the rear in Sunday’s race. Stenhouse was 18th in practice.
“Just started misfiring. Thought we had a sensor bad, which we did, switched it out and still had an issue,” Stenhouse told Fox Sports. “Better today than tomorrow.”