Blaney Wins Phoenix Pole to Continue Penske Hot Streak
AVONDALE, AZ – RIS – Ryan Blaney had the fastest car in practice and he proved it by winning the pole for the monster Energy NASCAR Cup Ticket Guardian 500 race at ISM Raceway on Friday. Blaney turned a lap of 141.287 mph to keep Team Penske’s early season success going. It was his sixth career pole but first of the season and came on the heels of teammate Brad Keselowski’s victory at Atlanta and Joey Logano’s win last weekend at Las Vegas.
The biggest action in qualifying came after the opening round, when Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell got into a fight. Suarez was upset that McDowell had gotten in his way, ruining both of their qualifying attempts, and it took several crew members to pull them apart. It’s nothing new for McDowell. He was accused of the same tactic by Martin Truex, Jr. at Atlanta.
“I held him up on that lap, that was just a miscommunication,” McDowell said. “We were all waiting until the end to go out there.”
Said Suarez: “Just a lack of respect. You got to try to get out of the way if someone is making a hot lap. That’s racing.
“I’m the kind of driver that I’m going to give a lot of respect to you, always, if you give me respect back. If you don’t give me respect, I’m going to go kick your ass.”
Among those who failed to advance to Round 2 were Kyle Larson, Matt DiBenedetto, Clint Bowyer, Suarez, McDowell and Larson.
Chase Elliott will start on the outside of the first row, while Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch will start from Row 2. Keselowski rounded out the top five in another strong start to a weekend.
“Qualifying hasn’t been our best this year but it’s the first short track we’ve been at,” Blaney said. “We’ve had speed all day, which has been kind of fun. We’ve just kind of tweaked on it and tweaked on it.
“It’s nice to get the weekend started off right. We’ll see how our race car is tomorrow (in practice). That was fun. At Las Vegas, was I wasn’t too happy about qualifying but now it’s cool you actually have to lift and you can work on your car.”
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed Lap # # Laps -Fastest -Next
Qualifying Round: 3
1 12 Ryan Blaney MoneyLion Ford 25.480 141.287 1 2 0.000 0.000
2 9 Chase Elliott Hooters Chevrolet 25.683 140.171 1 2 0.203 0.203
3 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 25.713 140.007 2 3 0.233 0.030
4 18 Kyle Busch Skittles Toyota 25.741 139.855 2 3 0.261 0.028
5 2 Brad Keselowski Alliance Truck Parts Ford 25.742 139.849 2 3 0.262 0.001
6 88 Alex Bowman Nationwide Chevrolet 25.757 139.768 3 3 0.277 0.015
7 24 William Byron Axalta Chevrolet 25.794 139.567 1 3 0.314 0.037
8 4 Kevin Harvick Jimmy John's Ford 25.823 139.411 1 2 0.343 0.029
9 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 25.861 139.206 2 2 0.381 0.038
10 20 Erik Jones Reser's Fine Foods Toyota 25.901 138.991 2 3 0.421 0.040
11 8 Daniel Hemric # Okuma Chevrolet 25.928 138.846 2 2 0.448 0.027
12 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 25.962 138.664 2 3 0.482 0.034
Qualifying Round: 2
1 12 Ryan Blaney MoneyLion Ford 25.641 140.400 1 1 0.000 0.000
2 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 25.663 140.280 2 2 0.022 0.022
3 88 Alex Bowman Nationwide Chevrolet 25.669 140.247 2 2 0.028 0.006
4 2 Brad Keselowski Alliance Truck Parts Ford 25.673 140.225 2 2 0.032 0.004
5 18 Kyle Busch Skittles Toyota 25.685 140.160 2 2 0.044 0.012
6 9 Chase Elliott Hooters Chevrolet 25.718 139.980 2 2 0.077 0.033
7 4 Kevin Harvick Jimmy John's Ford 25.754 139.784 1 2 0.113 0.036
8 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 25.811 139.475 2 2 0.170 0.057
9 24 William Byron Axalta Chevrolet 25.813 139.465 2 2 0.172 0.002
10 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 25.819 139.432 2 3 0.178 0.006
11 8 Daniel Hemric # Okuma Chevrolet 25.908 138.953 5 6 0.267 0.089
12 20 Erik Jones Reser's Fine Foods Toyota 25.909 138.948 5 5 0.268 0.001
13 3 Austin Dillon Dow Chevrolet 25.924 138.867 3 3 0.283 0.015
14 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 25.936 138.803 2 2 0.295 0.012
15 48 Jimmie Johnson Ally Chevrolet 25.936 138.803 2 7 0.295 0.000
16 1 Kurt Busch Global Poker Chevrolet 25.943 138.766 2 2 0.302 0.007
17 21 Paul Menard Menards/Quaker State Ford 25.948 138.739 1 3 0.307 0.005
18 6 Ryan Newman Oscar Mayer Bacon Ford 25.956 138.696 2 5 0.315 0.008
19 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Sunny D Ford 25.989 138.520 2 5 0.348 0.033
20 13 Ty Dillon GEICO Chevrolet 26.005 138.435 2 5 0.364 0.016
21 47 Ryan Preece # Kroger Chevrolet 26.025 138.329 2 3 0.384 0.020
22 37 Chris Buescher Kroger Flavor Fill Up Chevrolet 26.191 137.452 2 2 0.550 0.166
23 43 Bubba Wallace World Wide Technology Chevrolet 26.289 136.939 2 3 0.648 0.098
24 32 Corey LaJoie Schluter Systems Ford 26.310 136.830 2 2 0.669 0.021
*Required to qualify on time, OP - Top 30 in Owner Points, PC - Past Champion,(i)Ineligible for driver points in this series
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed Lap # # Laps -Fastest -Next
Qualifying Round: 1
1 4 Kevin Harvick Jimmy John's Ford 25.903 138.980 3 3 0.000 0.000
2 9 Chase Elliott Hooters Chevrolet 25.943 138.766 2 2 0.040 0.040
3 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Sunny D Ford 26.002 138.451 2 2 0.099 0.059
4 21 Paul Menard Menards/Quaker State Ford 26.013 138.392 3 3 0.110 0.011
5 37 Chris Buescher Kroger Flavor Fill Up Chevrolet 26.016 138.376 2 3 0.113 0.003
6 2 Brad Keselowski Alliance Truck Parts Ford 26.045 138.222 2 2 0.142 0.029
7 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 26.046 138.217 2 2 0.143 0.001
8 18 Kyle Busch Skittles Toyota 26.055 138.169 2 2 0.152 0.009
9 3 Austin Dillon Dow Chevrolet 26.058 138.153 2 2 0.155 0.003
10 12 Ryan Blaney MoneyLion Ford 26.073 138.074 1 1 0.170 0.015
11 8 Daniel Hemric # Okuma Chevrolet 26.078 138.047 3 3 0.175 0.005
12 24 William Byron Axalta Chevrolet 26.086 138.005 2 2 0.183 0.008
13 47 Ryan Preece # Kroger Chevrolet 26.126 137.794 3 3 0.223 0.040
14 6 Ryan Newman Oscar Mayer Bacon Ford 26.145 137.694 2 2 0.242 0.019
15 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 26.157 137.630 2 2 0.254 0.012
16 1 Kurt Busch Global Poker Chevrolet 26.166 137.583 3 3 0.263 0.009
17 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 26.168 137.573 2 3 0.265 0.002
18 20 Erik Jones Reser's Fine Foods Toyota 26.175 137.536 2 3 0.272 0.007
19 88 Alex Bowman Nationwide Chevrolet 26.181 137.504 2 2 0.278 0.006
20 13 Ty Dillon GEICO Chevrolet 26.194 137.436 3 5 0.291 0.013
21 48 Jimmie Johnson Ally Chevrolet 26.205 137.378 2 2 0.302 0.011
22 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 26.207 137.368 3 3 0.304 0.002
23 43 Bubba Wallace World Wide Technology Chevrolet 26.288 136.945 2 3 0.385 0.081
24 32 Corey LaJoie Schluter Systems Ford 26.303 136.867 3 3 0.400 0.015
25 95 Matt DiBenedetto Procore Toyota 26.315 136.804 1 2 0.412 0.012
26 14 Clint Bowyer ITsavvy Ford 26.362 136.560 3 3 0.459 0.047
27 34 Michael McDowell Dockside Logistics Ford 26.371 136.514 2 2 0.468 0.009
28 41 Daniel Suarez Ruckus Ford 26.379 136.472 2 2 0.476 0.008
29 38 David Ragan Select Blinds Ford 26.382 136.457 2 3 0.479 0.003
30 36 Matt Tifft # Surface Sunscreen/Tunity Ford 26.411 136.307 3 5 0.508 0.029
31 42 Kyle Larson McDonald's Chevrolet 26.709 134.786 1 1 0.806 0.298
32 00 Landon Cassill Iron Mountain Data Centers Chevrolet 26.777 134.444 3 4 0.874 0.068
33 15 Ross Chastain(i) FitStrong Chevrolet 26.989 133.388 2 3 1.086 0.212
34 51 Cody Ware # Jacob Companies Chevrolet 27.770 129.636 2 3 1.867 0.781
35 77 Quin Houff Rim Ryderz Chevrolet 28.646 125.672 2 2 2.743 0.876
36 52 Bayley Currey(i) Mtel-One Ford 0.000 0.000 0 0 ----- -----
*Required to qualify on time, OP - Top 30 in Owner Points, PC - Past Champion,(i)Ineligible for driver points in this series
Ron Fleshman
RIS NASCAR Editor. Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.