Ryan Blaney recorded his first Busch Light Pole Award of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 11.
The event’s starting lineup was determined through a single-car, two-lap qualifying format. In the format, all 37 competitors vie for 37 starting spots, cycling around Bristol Motor Speedway twice as they attempt to post the fastest lap. The competitor who posts the fastest lap within the two laps is awarded the pole position.
During the qualifying session, Blaney, who was the 15th-fastest competitor in practice earlier on Saturday, used his two laps to post a pole-winning lap at 127.064 mph in 15.101 seconds. The pole-winning lap was enough for Blaney’s No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry to claim the top-starting spot over a quadrant of Toyota competitors.
With the pole, Blaney notched his 13th Cup Series career pole for his 386th series start and his second at Bristol. It was also his first pole since Watkins Glen International in August 2025 and the second of the 2026 season for both Team Penske and Ford.
“Yeah, I just kind of got free on Lap 1 and then, it was just like, ‘All right, gather yourself back up in [Turns] 3 and 4 to try and get a second lap,” Blaney said on Prime. “Luckily, the rear tires came in better the second lap in [Turns] 1 and 2, and then 3 and 4, I thought was a really good corner. A really great job by the whole No. 12 boys. Our racecar in practice was pretty good, and it was nice that we made some pretty good adjustments for qualifying with the pace being up. Cool start to the weekend. Now, we got to do it for 500 laps. It should be fun.”
Blaney will share the front row with Tyler Reddick, the latter of whom clocked in the second-fastest lap of the session at 126.871 mph in 15.124 seconds. Reddick will start on the front row for a Cup event at Bristol for the first time and for a fourth time in 2026.
Toyota competitors Chase Briscoe, Riley Herbst and Ty Gibbs will start in the top five, respectively. Ross Chastain, the highest-qualifying Chevrolet competitor, will start in sixth place. Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric and Carson Hocevar completed the top-10 starting grid.
With 37 competitors vying for 37 starting spots, all made the main event.
Bristol – Qualifying Position, Best Speed, Best Time:
- Ryan Blaney, 127.064 mph, 15.101 seconds
- Tyler Reddick, 126.871 mph, 15.124 seconds
- Chase Briscoe, 126.779 mph, 15.135 seconds
- Riley Herbst, 126.679 mph, 15.147 seconds
- Ty Gibbs, 126.537 mph, 15.164 seconds
- Ross Chastain, 126.445 mph, 15.175 seconds
- Chris Buescher, 126.320 mph, 15.190 seconds
- Kyle Larson, 126.303 mph, 15.192 seconds
- Austin Cindric, 126.237 mh, 15.200 seconds
- Carson Hocevar, 126.229 mph, 15.201 seconds
- Denny Hamlin, 126.030 mph, 15.225 seconds
- Bubba Wallace, 125.980 mph, 15.231 seconds
- Daniel Suarez, 125.963 mph, 15.233 seconds
- Christopher Bell, 125.732 mph, 15.261 seconds
- Zane Smith, 125.601 mph, 15.277 seconds
- Noah Gragson, 125.584 mph, 15.279 seconds
- Ryan Preece, 125.559 mph, 15.282 seconds
- Chase Elliott, 125.535 mph, 15.285 seconds
- Michael McDowell, 125.486 mph, 15.291 seconds
- Joey Logano, 125.322 mph, 15.311 seconds
- Brad Keselowski, 125.313 mph, 15.312 seconds
- AJ Allmendinger, 125.224 mph, 15.323 seconds
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 125.158 mph, 15.331 seconds
- Austin Dillon, 125.052 mph, 15.344 seconds
- Josh Berry, 124.889 mph, 15.364 seconds
- Connor Zilisch, 124.857 mph, 15.368 seconds
- Alex Bowman, 124.857 mph, 15.368 seconds
- Erik Jones, 124.776 mph, 15.378 seconds
- Kyle Busch, 124.686 mph, 15.389 seconds
- Cole Custer, 124.565 mph, 15.404 seconds
- John Hunter Nemechek, 124.058 mph, 15.467 seconds
- Ty Dillon, 123.810 mph, 15.498 seconds
- Shane van Gisbergen, 123.682 mph, 15.514 seconds
- William Byron, 123.364 mph, 15.554 seconds
- Todd Gilliland, 123.055 mph, 15.593 seconds
- Cody Ware, 122.898 mph, 15.613 seconds
- Chad Finchum, 122.131 mph, 15.711 seconds
The 2026 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway is scheduled to occur on Sunday, April 12, and air at 3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
