Blaney takes Cup Series pole at Phoenix as Larson gets buried in the pack

Ryan Blaney will begin his quest for a third consecutive win at Phoenix Raceway from the front of the field.

Blaney (C) won the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race with a 137.143 mph (26.260s) lap in his Team Penske Ford. It is the 17th pole of Blaney’s career. Sunday will be the third time he’s started from the pole at Phoenix.

He was also fastest in practice.

“I’m really proud of the lap, for sure,” Blaney said. “The car did everything it needed to do and stuck when it needed to. So, overall, a really good lap. I’m not the best qualifier at this place; I feel like I race better than I qualify, so I’m really, really proud of the effort by the [No.] 12 boys working on, OK, how do we get qualifying speed and what do we need to do to get better.

“A great place to start the weekend. A Penske front row, that’s awesome, and hopefully we have something for them tomorrow.”

Joey Logano (C) will share the front row with his teammate. Logano ran a fast lap of 136.976 mph.

Chase Briscoe (C) qualified third at 136.825 mph, and Denny Hamlin (C) qualified fourth at 136.809 mph. Christopher Bell (C) rounded out the top five at 136.617 mph.

Tyler Reddick (C) qualified sixth at 136.374 mph, Ty Gibbs (C) qualified seventh at 136.291 mph, Michael McDowell qualified eighth at 136.199 mph, and Josh Berry qualified ninth at 136.142 mph.

William Byron (C) qualified 10th at 135.936 mph.

The Chase drivers who qualified outside the top 10 were Daniel Suarez (14th), Austin Cindric (15th), Chase Elliott (16th), and Chris Buescher (17th).

Cup Series championship point leader Kyle Larson qualified 22nd. Larson got loose during qualifying.

The rest of the Chase drivers qualified 23rd (Bubba Wallace), 26th (Ryan Preece), and 28th (Carson Hocevar).

A field of 37 will compete in Sunday’s race. It is the seventh race in the Chase.

NEXT: The Freeway Insurance 500 at 3 p.m. ET Sunday.

C denotes Chase driver.

RESULTS