After a weekend off for the holiday, the NASCARCup Series is back on track at “The Last Colosseum.” That track is better known as Bristol Motor Speedway, a high-banking short track in Tennessee that brings tight racing.
On Saturday, the series moved into qualifying, and Ryan Blaney found himself earning the pole position. Tyler Reddick will join him on the front row, with other good qualifiers in Chase Briscoe and Riley Herbst, to much of a surprise. The Food City 500 will air on your television on Sunday at 3 PM.
|
Starting Position |
Driver |
|
1 |
Ryan Blaney |
|
2 |
Tyler Reddick |
|
3 |
Chase Briscoe |
|
4 |
Riley Herbst |
|
5 |
Ty Gibbs |
|
6 |
Ross Chastain |
|
7 |
Chris Buescher |
|
8 |
Kyle Larson |
|
9 |
Austin Cindric |
|
10 |
Carson Hocevar |
|
11 |
Denny Hamlin |
|
12 |
Bubba Wallace |
|
13 |
Daniel Suarez |
|
14 |
Christopher Bell |
|
15 |
Zane Smith |
|
16 |
Noah Gragson |
|
17 |
Ryan Preece |
|
18 |
Chase Elliott |
|
19 |
Michael McDowell |
|
20 |
Joey Logano |
|
21 |
Brad Keselowski |
|
22 |
AJ Allmendinger |
|
23 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
|
24 |
Austin Dillon |
|
25 |
Josh Berry |
|
26 |
Connor Zilisch |
|
27 |
Alex Bowman |
|
28 |
Erik Jones |
|
29 |
Kyle Busch |
|
30 |
Cole Custer |
|
31 |
John Hunter Nemechek |
|
32 |
Ty Dillon |
|
33 |
Shane van Gisbergen |
|
34 |
William Byron |
|
35 |
Todd Gilliland |
|
36 |
Cody Ware |
|
37 |
Chad Finchum |
Top Qualifiers
Ryan Blaney walks the grid during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo by Matt Kelley/Getty Images)Photo by Matt Kelley/Getty Images
Ryan Blaney won the pole position after a very poor first of two qualifying laps. Blaney bested Reddick by 0.023 seconds, further proving himself as the far-best Team Penske driver in 2026.
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Tyler Reddick still has the best aerodynamics in the Cup Series, earning a front row start in 2nd place. Reddick is historically average at short tracks, especially Bristol, so fans should be interested to see how he results.
Riley Herbst came out of the clouds to start on row two, in 4th place. Herbst is always the far-worst of the three 23XI Racing cars. Yet, they flash speed better than any team outside of Joe Gibbs Racing. Herbst would do great things for his playoff chances should he earn a top-5 finish.
Bad Qualifiers
William Byron struggled through his two laps, citing that his car felt “terrible.” Byron qualified in 34th place, which very likely may become his worst start in all of 2026.
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Alex Bowman comes back to the racetrack after a four-race absence due to vertigo. However, a 27th place qualifying position puts him far behind winning expectations, despite historically being strong at Bristol.
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Apr 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the Racing section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Read the full article here