Ryan Blaney claimed his first Atlanta Motor Speedway pole Saturday during qualifying for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at the legendary 1.54-mile speedway.
Blaney claimed the top spot with a speed of 179.371 mph in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang. It was Blaney’s 11th career pole and his first of the 2025 season. He led a parade of Fords at the top of the starting lineup; ten of the first 11 positions were filled by Fords.
Blaney’s Team Penske teammates Austin Cindric and Joey Logano qualified second and fourth in their No. 2 and No. 22 Fords respectively, and Josh Berry of Penske-aligned Wood Brothers Racing was third in his No. 21 Ford.
“From today, that’s a big testament to our whole group,” Blaney said. “Great job by them. My job was easy today, to make sure I don’t hit the chip or under shift it. Qualifying like we did, it shows how similar our cars are. I hope it translates to the race tomorrow. We will find out. It seems to be like we have a pretty decent handle on this place, but you still never know going into the race. It’s a cool day today and looking forward to hopefully keeping all four of us up there tomorrow.”
Blaney will lead the field to green Sunday (3 p.m., FOX, PRN Radio) as he goes for his 14th career victory and second at Atlanta (also 2021 spring).
“I thought my car drove fantastic, even better than last year,” Blaney said. “What does that tell me, I don’t know. I wish it was warmer. I can’t tell you too much from two laps by myself today, but we will find out tomorrow.”
Last year at this event Blaney was runner-up in a three-wide photo finish. Daniel Suárez took home the checkered flag that night while Blaney and third-place finisher Kyle Busch were mere inches away. Blaney said if a similar scenario develops between he and his teammates late Sunday, may the best car win.
“You want to win for yourself and you have teammates and you want the company to win,” Blaney said. “We talk a lot about that stuff, if we are in these spots, what are the rules of engagement? Roger never tells us anything but to race hard and clean. The rule is you are free to race, just don’t wreck each other. You have to be careful. Race hard just don’t take each other out.”
Other notable qualifiers include recent Daytona 500 winner William Byron, also a past AMS winner, who will start 16th in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy. Local favorite Chase Elliott will start 19th in his No. 9 Chevy. Defending race winner Suárez qualified 29th in his Trackhouse Racing Chevy. Busch has the top qualified Chevy at sixth and Bubba Wallace had the fastest Toyota, and sits 14th in his 23XI Racing machine.
Tickets for tomorrow’s Ambetter Health 400 NASCAR Cup Series race are available at www.AtlantaMotorSpeedway.com.
Starting lineup for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway:
- Ryan Blaney
- Austin Cindric
- Josh Berry
- Joey Logano
- Todd Gilliland
- Kyle Busch
- Zane Smith
- Chris Buescher
- Brad Keselowski
- Noah Gragson
- Ryan Preece
- AJ Allmendinger
- Alex Bowman
- Bubba Wallace
- Austin Dillon
- William Byron
- Kyle Larson
- Tyler Reddick
- Chase Elliott
- Ty Dillon
- Justin Haley
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Cole Custer
- Michael McDowell
- Chase Briscoe
- Carson Hocevar
- Riley Herbst
- Erik Jones
- Daniel Suárez
- Shane Van Gisbergen
- Cody Ware
- Christopher Bell
- Ross Chastain
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Corey LaJoie
- Ty Gibbs
- Denny Hamlin
- BJ McLeod
- JJ Yeley
