Ford dominance in qualifying at drafting tracks is not precisely breaking information — exterior of Chase Briscoe’s shock pole within the Daytona 500 for Toyota (later overshadowed by inspection points discovered with the mounting of the rear spoiler), Ford has earned the highest spot on the grid in ten of the final 11 drafting races.
This week, Ryan Blaney earned one other pole place for the Blue Oval for Sunday’s Atlanta race, beating his Crew Penske teammate Austin Cindric by simply 0.002s. It was a powerful displaying for Penske with the Penske-aligned Wooden Brothers Racing workforce in third with Josh Berry and reigning sequence champion Joey Logano in fourth (and with no webbed glove this time).
However what made Saturday’s qualifying session so gorgeous was the truth that Ford drivers earned ten of the primary eleven spots on the grid. Kyle Busch was the one interloper in a Chevrolet, qualifying sixth.
Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing, HighPoint.com Ford Mustang and Todd Gilliland, Entrance Row Motorsports, Georgia Peanuts Ford Mustang
Picture by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
With almost each Ford operating within the sequence on the entrance at Atlanta, the Blue Oval “wall” will make it pretty troublesome for the Chevrolet and Toyota drivers to struggle their manner ahead. The primary stage is barely 30 laps, so it will likely be a straight dash for the stage factors with no green-flag pitstops. The second stage is a repeat of that, permitting Ford to doubtlessly management a very good portion of the race unchallenged, accumulating piles of stage factors.
Sunday from Blaney’s view
Blaney is about up for an excellent begin to Sunday’s with a sea of Fords round him, together with his teammates. He advised media after his pole run, “… It’s reassuring when you’ve gotten extra Fords round you. You by no means know when somebody goes to hold you out to dry, however that is racing. They will do what they will do. However it’s extra reassuring when you’ve gotten extra friendlies round you, I assume I’d say, however you by no means understand how it’s going to work out.
“[Linking up] at first, and hopefully it stays that manner, however issues are going to vary all through the race,” defined Blaney. “It’s kinda good that, no less than at first of the race, hopefully the primary stage, you possibly can management. Nevertheless it’s not going to be that manner the entire race, proper? You’ll get shuffled in some unspecified time in the future. Pit technique goes to come back into play so I simply have to react to that. However it’s good to all begin collectively.
Whereas it is anticipated that others will discover their manner by way of the fray of Fords and problem in some unspecified time in the future, it’ll take a number of the largest names some time. The very best of the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet quartet is Alex Bowman in thirteenth and the highest Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is Briscoe in twenty fifth. In the meantime, solely three Ford drivers certified worse than eleventh (Rick Ware Racing’s two entries and Haas Manufacturing unit Crew).
Ryan Blaney, Crew Penske Ford
Picture by: Jonathan Bachman – Getty Pictures
Ford (and extra particularly Penske) got here 0.003s shy of sweeping the Atlanta races final yr with Blaney shedding out within the closest three-wide end in historical past whereas Logano went on to win within the fall. Ought to the Ford drivers handle to stay collectively on Sunday, it might be silly to wager in opposition to them.
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