Blaney leads Ford-dominated Cup Series qualifying at Atlanta

Yesterday at 01:11 PM

Team Penske and alliance partner Wood Brothers Racing led a dominating final round of Cup Series qualifying for Ford at Atlanta Motor Speedway — the manufacturer taking nine of the top 10 starting positions for Sunday's race.

Ryan Blaney won the pole with a lap of 179.371mph (30.908s). It’s his first at Atlanta and the 11th of his Cup Series career.

"A really cool effort by the whole No. 12 boys, and the BodyArmor Zero Sugar Ford Mustang was really good," Blaney told Prime. "It drove great. I think we got the No. 2 by like 0.02s, so that was close. But I think it just shows the speed in all our cars — the Penske cars. The No. 21 is fast as well. Big props to everybody back home, everybody who is here, Roush Yates Engines. It's pretty cool.

"Hopefully it carries into tomorrow. Hopefully they drive well. 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 share the front row with teammate Austin Cindric who qualified second at 179.359mph.

Josh Berry, the new shoe at Wood Brothers Racing, qualified third at 179.139mph. Joey Logano qualified fourth at 178.827mph.

Todd Gilliland ran fifth at 178.735mph, Kyle Busch — the only non-Ford driver in the top 10 — qualified sixth at 178.626 mph, Zane Smith seventh at 178.436mph, Chris Buescher eighth at 178.264mph, Brad Keselowski ninth at 178.252mph and Noah Gragson 10th.

Ford also took 11th with Ryan Preece (178.086mph).

Daytona 500 winner William Byron qualified 16th.

Daniel Suarez, the defending race winner, qualified 29th. Denny Hamlin qualified 37th of 39 drivers. Hamlin was the slowest of the full-time chartered teams.

The single-car qualifying session is the only on-track time for Cup Series teams going into Sunday's race.

NEXT: Ambetter Health 400 at 3pm ET Sunday.