NASCAR Cup Atlanta beginning lineup: Penske 1-2 with Ryan Blaney on pole

Ryan Blaney will lead the sector to the inexperienced flag in Sunday evening’s NASCAR Cup race, driving the No. 12 Group Penske Ford. That is Blaney’s 14th profession pole and his second of the 2026 season.

Blaney’s pole lap was 30.815s, 0.036s away from Penske teammate Joey Logano, who will be a part of him on the entrance row within the No. 22 Group Penske Ford.

And whereas he was pleased with the pole, Blaney is aware of there are nonetheless plenty of unknowns with no follow this weekend.

“How it should react tomorrow within the race, in visitors, because the observe adjustments, and as you get laps on the tires — all that,” mentioned Blaney. “You hope you might have a good deal with on, however the aim as we speak was to attempt to qualify the most effective we might, and we had been ready to do this. So, I recognize everybody on this #12 automobile for bringing me a quick automobile. It is nice to have a Group Penske entrance row. That half is nice, and I am wanting ahead tomorrow to see what we have now within the draft.”

Kyle Larson will begin third, Austin Dillon fourth, and Daniel Suarez fifth. Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain, and Brad Keselowski crammed out the rest of the highest ten.

Spherical 1
 

It was a really windy and sizzling day at EchoPark Speedway, and people tough circumstances rapidly led to a difficulty as Chad Finchum spun within the No. 66 automobile proper as qualifying bought underway.

That was the one incident, although some automobiles did shoot up the observe as they struggled for stability.

On the high of the charts, it was Penske good with all three automobiles 1-2-3 in Spherical 1 of qualifying. Chastain was the best Chevrolet, and no Toyotas superior as they prioritized race setup over qualifying velocity. All JGR and 23XI automobiles certified twentieth or worse, with Denny Hamlin down in twenty eighth and Tyler Reddick thirty first.

Spherical 2

Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Group Penske Ford

Picture by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Photographs

A. Dillon was the tenth and closing driver to advance into the second spherical of qualifying, beating the top-qualifying Toyota of Erik Jones in eleventh. There was simply 0.002s between them for the ultimate switch spot.

Within the closing spherical, the tenth-fastest driver from Spherical 1 went out first, so it was Dillon setting the brand new benchmark within the battle for pole.

Larson then bested Dillon, however solely by 0.002s. He held the highest spot till Penske arrived, with each Blaney and Logano overtaking him on the velocity charts.

2026 NASCAR Cup Atlanta Beginning Lineup

1

12
 
Ford

179.912

2

22
 
Ford

179.702

3

5
 
Chevrolet

179.406

4

3
 
Chevrolet

179.394

5

7
 
Chevrolet

179.359

6

48
 
Chevrolet

179.226

7

9
 
Chevrolet

179.203

8

2
 
Ford

179.191

9

1
 
Chevrolet

178.977

10

6
 
Ford

178.729

11

43
 
Toyota

178.683

12

97
 
Chevrolet

178.660

13

17
 
Ford

178.465

14

77
 
Chevrolet

178.413

15

47
 
Chevrolet

178.378

16

10
 
Chevrolet

178.361

17

J. BerryWood Brothers Racing

21
 
Ford

178.292

18

71
 
Chevrolet

178.264

19

60
 
Ford

178.212

20

19
 
Toyota

178.195

21

34
 
Ford

178.155

22

23
 
Toyota

178.098

23

54
 
Toyota

177.983

24

42
 
Toyota

177.829

25

C. ZilischTrackHouse Racing

88
 
Chevrolet

177.698

26

24
 
Chevrolet

177.664

27

16
 
Chevrolet

177.624

28

11
 
Toyota

177.363

29

35
 
Toyota

177.306

30

33
 
Chevrolet

177.215

31

45
 
Toyota

177.091

32

20
 
Toyota

177.017

33

41
 
Chevrolet

176.995

34

38
 
Ford

176.949

35

51
 
Chevrolet

176.476

36

4
 
Ford

176.207

37

78
 
Chevrolet

174.653

38

66
 
Ford

 

 

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