Ryan Blaney, who was dominant in a win in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway in 2024, was already one of the favorites to win Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350. The expectations are even more lofty now, as Blaney surged to the pole position on Saturday afternoon at the 0.875-mile short track.
Starting Lineup: Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway
It took Blaney a second qualifying lap to pull off the pole-winning run, but after missing his marks on his opening lap, he was able to regroup to improve his time on the final lap.
“Really cool day. Appreciate the really fast car. Our 12 Menards/Pennington’s Ford Mustang was fast in practice and was able to lay down a good lap. Honestly, my first [qualifying] lap wasn’t what I wanted,” Blaney explained. “Fortunately, we had enough grip, kind of car came in, changed my line up a little bit for the second one to run a little bit faster and hang on for the pole.”
Officially, Blaney clocked in with a lap time of 23.474 seconds, which equates to a 134.191 mph circuit around the track. That allowed him to top Kyle Larson, the defending series champion, by a margin of 0.018 seconds for the pole.
This is Blaney’s third pole position of the season, and it marks his 15th career pole in 401 attempts.
Larson was tied in lap time by Joey Logano, Blaney’s Team Penske teammate, who will start third after losing out on a tiebreaker to Larson.
Brad Keselowski turned an incredible qualifying lap on his opening lap of the session, as he clocked in fourth-fastest. Unfortunately, Keselowski would lose control of his car and back hard into the outside wall in Turn 1 on his second qualifying lap.
Trouble for @keselowski in #BuschLightPole qualifying!
He spins in Turn 1 and backs the No. 6 Ford into the wall. pic.twitter.com/GXZx9Dq3qX
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 8, 2026
Keselowski will be credited with a fourth-place starting spot, but will have to drop to the rear of the field prior to the green flag on Sunday.
Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Connor Zilisch, Ross Chastain, and Erik Jones rounded out the top-10 fastest qualifiers on Saturday at Iowa Speedway.
William Byron, last year’s Iowa Corn 350 winner who is looking for his first win of the 2026 campaign, will start mired in the field in the 19th position.
Chase Elliott, who crashed his car in practice, was able to qualify his car on Saturday afternoon, but will roll from the 32nd starting position.
Here is a replay of Elliott’s practice crash:
Tough break for Chase Elliott. He lost control of his No. 9 Chevrolet, and backed into the outside wall in practice at Iowa Speedway. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/6r53zpl6Ax
— Toby Christie (@TobyChristie) August 8, 2026
While Gibbs carried the banner for the Joe Gibbs Racing team, it was an uncharacteristically slow qualifying session for his three teammates.
Chase Briscoe would qualify 20th, while Christopher Bell would muster a 22nd-place starting spot, and Denny Hamlin would qualify 29th.
Hamlin and Briscoe suffered from brake issues in qualifying and will likely need repairs to their braking systems overnight. If repairs are needed, both drivers would likely drop to the rear of the field for Sunday’s race.
The Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway is scheduled for Sunday, August 9, and will be televised on USA Network with coverage set to kick off at 3:30 PM ET.
