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Almirola leads Ford domination in Atlanta Cup qualifying
Aric Almirola led a Ford onslaught in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying Saturday evening at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The Stewart-Haas driver earned the pole with a lap of 177.346mph (31.261s) in the final round of single-car qualifying. It is the fifth pole of Almirola’s Cup Series career and the first of the season for the No. 10 team.
He will be joined on the front row for the Quaker State 400 by Ryan Blaney, who was the final car to post a qualifying speed, clocking in at 177.266mph.
Chase Briscoe qualified third at 177.147mph, Joey Logano fourth at 176.876mph and Harrison Burton fifth at 176.803mph. Logano won at Atlanta earlier this season.
Kevin Harvick qualified sixth in his final Atlanta race at 176.712mph, Ty Gibbs qualified seventh at 176.701mph, Kyle Larson eighth at 176.628mph, Todd Gilliland ninth at 176.538mph, and Austin Cindric 10th at 176.101mph.
Eight of the top 10 drivers in qualifying were from the Ford camp. Eleven Ford drivers qualified inside the top 15.
Martin Truex Jr., the championship points leader, qualified 16th. His fastest lap was 175.588mph.
Cole Custer qualified 21st for Rick Ware Racing. Custer is driving the No. 51 Ford for the team, making a return to the Cup Series for the first time since the season finale last season.
Defending race winner Chase Elliott qualified 23rd with a lap of 174.609mph.
Bubba Wallace was the only driver who did not post a qualifying lap. Wallace pulled off pit road in his No. 23 Toyota but felt something wrong and returned to the attention of his team.
“(It was) just really, really loose,” Wallace said. “A feeling I’ve never had before, so I brought it in so we didn’t tear up a good Leidos Toyota Camry. (We) found out what the issue was. Frustrating, but we’ll fix it and go and get them tomorrow.”
Kelly Crandall
Kelly has been on the NASCAR beat full-time since 2013, and joined RACER as chief NASCAR writer in 2017. Her work has also appeared in NASCAR.com, the NASCAR Illustrated magazine, and NBC Sports. A corporate communications graduate from Central Penn College, Crandall is a two-time George Cunningham Writer of the Year recipient from the National Motorsports Press Association.
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