Blaney grabs Iowa Cup Series pole

Ryan Blaney will lead the field to the green flag in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway.

Blaney went to the top of the board with a lap of 134.191 mph (23.474s). It is his first pole at Iowa and the third of the season. He won at the track in its inaugural event in 2024.

“A really cool day,” Blaney said. “I appreciate the really fast car; the 12 Ford Mustang was fast in practice, was able to lay down a good lap, and honestly, my first lap wasn’t what I wanted. Fortunately, we had enough grip, the car came in, changed my line a little bit on the second one to run a little bit faster, and hung on for the pole.”

Blaney has a new helmet for the weekend featuring colors honoring Kyle Busch, as well as photos from his career.

“It’s a special helmet we have this weekend,” Blaney said. “It’s nice to be able to finally debut, and hopefully we can have him with us tomorrow, and hopefully that helmet takes a trip to victory lane.”

Kyle Larson qualified second at 134.088 mph and Joey Logano qualified third at 134.088 mph. Brad Keselowski was fourth at 134.025 mph.

Keselowski, however, had originally clocked in third fastest and then crashed on his second lap. The former series champion got loose going into Turn 1, with the car snapping around and hitting the outside wall with the left rear and left front. He will have to start at the rear of the field.

Tyler Reddick qualified fifth at 133.911 mph, Ty Gibbs sixth at 133.786 mph, and Austin Dillon seventh at 133.786 mph. Connor Zilisch was eighth at 133.758 mph. It was a career-best qualifying effort for Zilisch in the Cup Series on an oval, which was also the first time he’d qualified in the top 10 on an oval. Sunday will be his 26th career start.

Ross Chastain qualified ninth at 133.667 mph and Erik Jones, who was fastest in practice, completed the top 10 at 133.503 mph.

The defending race winner, William Byron, qualified 19th. His lap was 133.125 mph.

Chase Briscoe was only good enough for 20th on his qualifying lap. Denny Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, qualified 29th. Both teams battled brake issues in qualifying and will continue working on the cars overnight.

Chase Elliott did make a qualifying run after he spun in practice and damaged the left rear of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. But Elliott was only fast enough to qualify in the 32nd position.

A field of 36 drivers will take the green flag on Sunday.

The Iowa Corn 350 is set for 3:30pm ET Sunday and airs on USA network.

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