Ryan Blaney Benefits From Mother Nature In Cup Qualifying At Richmond

Ryan Blaney had never been an incredible qualifier throughout his NASCAR Cup Series career. Prior to the 2026 season, Blaney only had 12 poles in 378 career starts. After his second consecutive pole-winning run on Friday afternoon at Richmond Raceway, Blaney is at a career-best four poles through the opening 24 races of the season.

While Blaney has a super fast No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse again this weekend, the driver did benefit from Mother Nature in the closing minutes of the qualifying session. Cloud cover rolled over the track, which allowed for a cooler track temperature.

Blaney was able to circuit around the 0.750-mile short track in 22.225 seconds, which equates to an average speed of 121.485 mph.

Nobody will ever know for sure if Blaney could have won the pole without the assist from the clouds, but he joked afterward that he was happy about the good bit of luck.

"I appreciate the cloud," Blaney smiled. "I really do, I got the benefit. I think only a handful of us got the benefit of the cloud. But, no, I mean, really good day. I thought our car was really decent in practice. And it's nice to put a good lap together. Qualifying is always super tough here. You know, after running 50 or 60 laps in practice, you're going to go out and run about three seconds faster than what your last lap just was. So, you just hope you hit it right."

He hit it right, for sure. And now Blaney, the third-place driver in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, will set his sights on his third win of the season in Saturday night's Cook Out 400.

"I'm excited for tomorrow. It's going to be a fun night under the lights. Hopefully, we'll have something for them," Blaney said.

Joining Blaney on the front row for Saturday night's race will be Chase Briscoe, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, who clocked in 0.050 seconds slower than Blaney's pole-winning lap time.

Josh Berry, who scored his first top-five finish of the season last weekend at Iowa Speedway, followed up last week's impressive effort with a third-place qualifying run. Berry, the current driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, is still seeking a ride for next season.

Ty Gibbs, last week's race winner, will start from the fourth position.

William Byron, Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski, and Joey Logano rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Saturday night's Cook Out 400.

Cook Out 400 Starting Lineup

1. 12 - Ryan Blaney
2. 19 - Chase Briscoe
3. 21 - Josh Berry
4. 54 - Ty Gibbs
5. 24 - William Byron
6. 60 - Ryan Preece
7. 23 - Bubba Wallace
8. 20 - Christopher Bell
9. 6 - Brad Keselowski
10. 22 - Joey Logano
11. 88 - Connor Zilisch
12. 42 - John Hunter Nemechek
13. 9 - Chase Elliott
14. 11 - Denny Hamlin
15. 16 - AJ Allmendinger
16. 3 - Austin Dillon
17. 35 - Riley Herbst
18. 1 - Ross Chastain
19. 17 - Chris Buescher
20. 7 - Daniel Suarez
21. 43 - Erik Jones
22. 77 - Carson Hocevar
23. 2 - Austin Cindric
24. 38 - Zane Smith
25. 48 - Alex Bowman
26. 71 - Michael McDowell
27. 34 - Todd Gilliland
28. 47 - Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
29. 41 - Cole Custer
30. 5 - Kyle Larson
31. 97 - Shane van Gisbergen
32. 45 - Tyler Reddick
33. 33 - Austin Hill
34. 10 - Ty Dillon
35. 4 - Noah Gragson
36. 66 - Josh Bilicki
37. 51 - Cody Ware

Add us as a preferred source on Google