Ryan Blaney climbs into his car in the garage area during a previous NASCAR Cup Series race weekend. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney earned his third career Phoenix Raceway pole position on Saturday afternoon.
Blaney will line up alongside Denny Hamlin to lead the field to green in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.
It is the best race start of the season for both drivers, who are eager to rebound after uncharacteristic tough luck in the opening three races of 2022.
Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, has only a single top-10 finish this year and is coming off a hard-luck 36th place showing last week at Las Vegas after being collected in an early race accident not of his own doing.
“Good race trim and was happy, obviously, with the speed in qualifying,” said Blaney, who now has seven career series pole positions.
“Proud of everybody on this 12 group and definitely needed it after our early end last week at Vegas. Hopefully we can stay up front tomorrow and have a shot at it,” he added, noting he has already put his Vegas bad luck out of mind.
“You just look past it,” he said, “I try not to stew on those things. Those things happen and you can’t let it get to you too much. It’s better to have fast cars and unfortunate things happen to you because at least you have fast cars.”
Hamlin is also hoping a good start will translate into a good finish. He won two races in 2021 and was racing in the Championship Four the last time the series competed at Phoenix, but has struggled this season with DNFs in two of the opening three races this year. His best finish is 15th at Auto Club Speedway and he’s ranked 29th in the standings heading into to the Phoenix green flag.
Hamlin is a two-time Phoenix winner, however taking the trophy in 2012 and 2019 – and he has top-five finishes in five of the last six races there. Three times he’s led at least 100 laps in a race and his 854 laps led is second only to nine-time race winner Kevin Harvick.
“Proud of our whole team for getting this thing out front, now we’ve just got to stay there,” Hamlin said.
William Byron was third fastest in qualifying, followed by Christopher Bell and Aric Almirola.
Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric, Alex Bowman, and Joey Logano round out the top-10 starting positions all advancing to the second round of qualifying on Saturday.
Harvick, a nine-time Phoenix winner, will start 16th. Defending race winner Martin Truex, Jr. will roll off 20th.
NASCAR Cup Series
Phoenix Raceway – Avondale, AZ
Ruoff Mortgage 500 – March 12, 2022
Saturday’s Qualifying Results
1. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 132.709 mph.
2. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 132.353 mph.
3. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 132.275 mph.
4. (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 132.270 mph.
5. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 131.984 mph.
6. (14) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 131.945 mph.
7. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 131.941 mph.
8. (2) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 131.873 mph.
9. (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 131.772 mph.
10. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 129.922 mph.
11. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
12. (8) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
13. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
14. (43) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
15. (45) Kurt Busch, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
16. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 0.000 mph.
17. (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
18. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 0.000 mph.
19. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
20. (19) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 0.000 mph.
21. (42) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
22. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 0.000 mph.
23. (99) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
24. (21) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 0.000 mph.
25. (41) Cole Custer, Ford, 0.000 mph.
26. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 0.000 mph.
27. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
28. (31) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
29. (16) A.J. Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
30. (7) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
31. (77) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
32. (51) Cody Ware, Ford, 0.000 mph.
33. (38) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 0.000 mph.
34. (78) B.J. McLeod, Ford, 0.000 mph.
35. (15) Garrett Smithley, Ford, 0.000 mph.
36. (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
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