Tyler Reddick may have four wins this season to Ryan Blaney’s one, but the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse gained a significant mental edge heading into Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Nobody turned a faster lap than Blaney during Saturday’s qualifying session around the 0.533-mile high-banked short track, which featured a lot of slipping and sliding with overcast weather conditions.
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Blaney cranked out a pole-winning lap time of 15.101 seconds, which equates to a 127.064 mph average speed, and that was enough to defeat Reddick for the pole position by a margin of 0.023 seconds. Not a massive defeat, but one that puts Blaney in the prime starting spot for Sunday’s race.
It was a great recovery for Blaney, who suffered from a loose condition, like seemingly everyone else did, on the opening lap of his qualifying run. However, on Lap 2, he was able to refocus, and get exactly what he needed to capture the pole.
“Yeah, just kind of got free [on] Lap 1, landing into 1, and then, it was just kind of like, alright gather yourself up back up for [Turns] 3 and 4 to try to get a second lap,” Blaney explained. “Luckily, the rear tires came in better the second lap in [Turns] 1 and 2, and then 3 and 4, I thought was a really good corner. Really great job by the whole 12 boys.”
The pole is the first of the season for Blaney, and it marks the 13th of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
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Chase Briscoe qualified in the third position, driving the No. 19 Lance Snacks Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, and he was followed by Riley Herbst, who was the pleasant surprise of the qualifying session.
Herbst, who sat atop the speed charts for the majority of the session, was able to hang on for a fourth-place qualifying run, which is the best qualifying effort of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
Ty Gibbs, who continues to seek his first career NASCAR Cup Series win, will roll from the starting grid in the fifth position, at a track, where he has competed very admirably throughout his young career.
Food City 500 Starting Lineup
1. 12-Ryan Blaney
2. 45-Tyler Reddick
3. 19-Chase Briscoe
4. 35-Riley Herbst
5. 54-Ty Gibbs
6. 1-Ross Chastain
7. 17-Chris Buescher
8. 5-Kyle Larson
9. 2-Austin Cindric
10. 77-Carson Hocevar
11. 11-Denny Hamlin
12. 23-Bubba Wallace
13. 7-Daniel Suarez
14. 20-Christopher Bell
15. 38-Zane Smith
16. 4-Noah Gragson
17. 60-Ryan Preece
18. 9-Chase Elliott
19. 71-Michael McDowell
20. 22-Joey Logano
21. 6-Brad Keselowski
22. 16-AJ Allmendinger
23. 47-Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24. 3-Austin Dillon
25. 21-Josh Berry
26. 88-Connor Zilisch
27. 48-Alex Bowman
28. 43-Erik Jones
29. 8-Kyle Busch
30. 41-Cole Custer
31. 42-John Hunter Nemechek
32. 10-Ty Dillon
33. 97-Shane van Gisbergen
34. 24-William Byron
35. 34-Todd Gilliland
36. 51-Cody Ware
37. 66-Chad Finchum
This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as Ryan Blaney Bests Reddick For Pole In Food City 500 at Bristol.
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