Ryan Blaney, seen here from an earlier race weekend, scored the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race
at the Circuit of the Americas. Photo: Logan Riely/Getty Images
Ryan Blaney will start from pole position in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, becoming the first multi-time pole winner of the 2022 season.
It’s his second pole this year and eighth in his career.
Blaney’s lap of 92.759 mph around the 3.41-mile road course in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford held up to a late session charge by Daniel Suarez, who edged Cole Custer for the outside of the front row but was still just .026-seconds off Blaney’s fastest lap.
“I wouldn’t really say I’m a great road course racer by any means, I enjoy road courses a lot but never been in great contention to win one,” Blaney said, adding, “So I would say I’m an average road course racer. And honestly what made me happy about the pole was that we were fifth in our (first round) group and barely made the round of 10 and then picked up half a second from first round, so I was as proud we picked up that speed.”
Custer will start third, lining up alongside Tyler Reddick in fourth and Alex Bowman in fifth.
Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Justin Haley, and rookie Austin Cindric rounded out the top-10 in final qualifying.
It was quite the day’s comeback for Blaney, who went off course and hit the soft barriers during opening practice but was able to rebound to the top position when it mattered most.
“Talk about an up and down day for sure, from putting it in the barriers on my third lap and not knowing if the car was killed, if we would have to go to a back-up, what it was going to take to fix it,” Blaney said, noting the incident with the barriers knocked his left-side mirrors off, preventing him from being able to really see the damage on the left side.
“I got out of the car and looked at it and it was scuffed up but not too bad,” he said. “They went through everything thoroughly and nothing was bent so got really lucky, honestly from a mistake of mine. Really lucky we hit those plastic blocks.
“And then to have speed to put it on the pole, I didn’t even know if we were going to be able to qualify after we wrecked so to come back and have a fast enough car to make it to the second round and then the final round and barely beat Daniel there was fun.
“Up and down day, glad it ended on a high note.”
Notably absent from the final 10-car round were defending COTA race winner Chase Elliott, who was 12th fastest in qualifying. Reigning series champion Kyle Larson was 13th fastest.
Kyle Busch, a four-time road course winner, was only 15th fastest qualifying lap and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex, Jr. – another four-time road course winner – was only 17th fastest. Road course ace A.J. Allmendinger was 20th.
NASCAR Cup Series
Circuit Of The Americas – Austin, TX
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix – March 26, 2022
Saturday’s Qualifying Results
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
1. 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford 132.343 92.759
2. 99 Daniel Suarez CommScope Chevrolet 132.369 92.741
3. 41 Cole Custer One Cure Ford 132.471 92.669
4. 8 Tyler Reddick 3CHI Chevrolet 132.552 92.613
5. 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 132.656 92.540
6. 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 132.892 92.376
7. 20 Christopher Bell DeWalt Toyota 132.912 92.362
8. 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Ground Toyota 133.051 92.265
9. 31 Justin Haley LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 133.566 91.910
10. 2 Austin Cindric # Discount Tire Ford 133.940 91.653
11. 45 Kurt Busch Monster Energy Toyota 132.669 92.531
12. 9 Chase Elliott Llumar Chevrolet 132.698 92.511
13. 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 132.698 92.511
14. 14 Chase Briscoe Mahindra Tractors Ford 132.782 92.452
15. 18 Kyle Busch Skittles Lime is Back Toyota 132.790 92.447
16. 1 Ross Chastain ONX Homes/iFly Chevrolet 132.801 92.439
17. 19 Martin Truex, Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 132.994 92.305
18. 4 Kevin Harvick GEARWRENCH Ford 133.164 92.187
19. 21 Harrison Burton # Freightliner Ford 133.263 92.119
20. 16 A.J. Allmendinger(i) Action Industries Chevrolet 133.297 92.095
21. 3 Austin Dillon Bennett Chevrolet 133.352 92.057
22. 17 Chris Buescher Fifth Third Bank Ford 133.356 92.054
23. 23 Bubba Wallace leidos Toyota 133.682 91.830
24. 24 William Byron RaptorTough.com Chevrolet 133.922 91.665
25. 10 Aric Almirola Rush/Mobil Delvac 1 Ford 134.137 91.518
26. 6 Brad Keselowski Wyndham Rewards Ford 134.149 91.510
27. 34 Michael McDowell Love’s Travel Stops Ford 134.164 91.500
28. 47 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. SunnyD Chevrolet 134.255 91.438
29. 38 Todd Gilliland # Boot Barn Ford 134.324 91.391
30. 43 Erik Jones FOCUSfactor Chevrolet 134.411 91.332
31. 50 Kaz Grala(i) Pit Viper Sunglasses Chevrolet 134.476 91.288
32. 7 Corey LaJoie Schluter Systems Chevrolet 134.492 91.277
33. 42 Ty Dillon chevyliners.com Chevrolet 134.531 91.250
34. 77 Josh Bilicki(i) Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 135.307 90.727
35. 51 Cody Ware Nurtec ODT Ford 135.584 90.542
36. 27 Loris Hezemans(i) Hezeberg Systems Ford 135.660 90.491
37. 66 Boris Said Bumper.com Ford 138.038 88.932
38. 15 Joey Hand Ford Pass Rewards Visa Ford 0.000 0.000
39. 78 Andy Lally(i) MaintenanceSupplies.com Ford 0.000 0.000
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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