NASCAR Cup Atlanta starting lineup: Penske 1-2 with Ryan Blaney on pole

Ryan Blaney will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday night’s NASCAR Cup race, driving the No. 12 Team Penske Ford. This is Blaney’s 14th career pole and his second of the 2026 season.

Blaney’s pole lap was 30.815s, 0.036s clear of Penske teammate Joey Logano, who will join him on the front row in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

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And while he was happy with the pole, Blaney knows there are still a lot of unknowns with no practice this weekend.

“How it’s going to react tomorrow in the race, in traffic, as the track changes, and as you get laps on the tires — all that,” said Blaney. “You hope you have a decent handle on, but the goal today was to try and qualify the best we could, and we were able to do that. So, I appreciate everyone on this #12 car for bringing me a fast car. It’s great to have a Team Penske front row. That part is great, and I’m looking forward tomorrow to see what we have in the draft.”

Kyle Larson will start third, Austin Dillon fourth, and Daniel Suarez fifth. Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain, and Brad Keselowski filled out the remainder of the top ten.

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Round 1

It was a very windy and hot day at EchoPark Speedway, and those tricky conditions quickly led to an issue as Chad Finchum spun in the No. 66 car right as qualifying got underway.

That was the only incident, though some cars did shoot up the track as they struggled for balance.

At the top of the charts, it was Penske perfect with all three cars 1-2-3 in Round 1 of qualifying. Chastain was the highest Chevrolet, and no Toyotas advanced as they prioritized race setup over qualifying speed. All JGR and 23XI cars qualified 20th or worse, with Denny Hamlin down in 28th and Tyler Reddick 31st.

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Round 2

Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford

A. Dillon was the tenth and final driver to advance into the second round of qualifying, beating the top-qualifying Toyota of Erik Jones in 11th. There was just 0.002s between them for the final transfer spot.

In the final round, the tenth-fastest driver from Round 1 went out first, so it was Dillon setting the new benchmark in the fight for pole.

Larson then bested Dillon, but only by 0.002s. He held the top spot until Penske arrived, with both Blaney and Logano overtaking him on the speed charts.

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2026 NASCAR Cup Atlanta Starting Lineup

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