Ryan Blaney will start from the most enviable position on the starting grid, the pole position, for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Blaney, who took the 13th pole position of his NASCAR Cup Series career on Saturday afternoon, was able to clock in faster than Tyler Reddick by a margin of 0.023 seconds to secure the top starting spot.
Starting Lineup: Food City 500 at Bristol
However, Blaney didn’t appear to be heading toward his first pole position of the 2026 season, as he only ranked 21st-fastest after he slid in Turns 1 and 2 on his opening qualifying lap. Blaney buckled down, was able to refocus, and cranked off a perfect 15.101-second qualifying lap time on his second qualifying lap.
“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.”
While Reddick came up just shy of his third pole position of the season, the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota will start his quest for his fifth win of the season from solid track position on the outside of the front row.
Chase Briscoe, who continues to try to find the magic he had in his maiden season with Joe Gibbs Racing a year ago, nailed down the third qualifying position, ahead of Riley Herbst, who raised some eyebrows with an impressive fourth-place qualifying effort.
Herbst’s career-best qualifying run prior to Saturday at Bristol was a pair of sixth-place qualifying runs at Daytona and Talladega, driving for Front Row Motorsports in 2023.
Ty Gibbs, who comes into this race on a five-race top-10 finishing streak and is looking for his first career win, will start from the fifth position, behind the wheel of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Ross Chastain, Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric, and Carson Hocevar rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
