Ryan Blaney was awarded the pole position for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series’ Window World 450 event at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on Saturday, July 18.
The event’s starting lineup was initially to be determined through an on-track qualifying session with a single-car, two-lap format. Due to inclement weather, the lineup was instead determined through a qualifying metric formula from the NASCAR rulebook. As a result, Ryan Blaney, who is coming off last weekend’s Cup victory at EchoPark Speedway and is currently ranked in third place in the 2026 Cup Series driver standings, was awarded the top-starting spot for Sunday night’s main event.
Sunday’s Cup event will mark Blaney’s first points-paying start at North Wilkesboro Speedway as he strives to become the series’ first winner at the track that last hosted a Cup event in September 1996. He made three starts at the track during the Cup Series’ All-Star Race over the past three seasons (2023-25), where he finished as high as fifth place in 2024. Blaney, who is trailing the regular-season points lead by 65 points, is also seeking his third victory of the 2026 campaign and reel in the points lead with six regular-season events remaining on this year’s schedule. Blaney is also one of four competitors, along with Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott and Todd Gilliland, who remain in contention for this year’s In-Season Challenge tournament.
Blaney will share the front row with Ty Gibbs, the latter of whom is coming off a fifth-place result at EchoPark Speedway and is ranked in fourth place in the standings. Christopher Bell, who won the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro a year ago, will start in third place while Carson Hocevar and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top-five starting spots, respectively.
Erik Jones, points leader Denny Hamlin, Shane van Gisbergen, Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott completed the top-10 starting grid, respectively.
With 37 competitors vying for 37 starting spots, all made the main event.
North Wilkesboro – Starting Lineup:
- Ryan Blaney
- Ty Gibbs
- Christopher Bell
- Carson Hocevar
- Tyler Reddick
- Erik Jones
- Denny Hamlin
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Chris Buescher
- Chase Elliott
- Joey Logano
- Austin Dillon
- Ross Chastain
- Austin Cindric
- William Byron
- Michael McDowell
- Daniel Suarez
- Todd Gilliland
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Cole Custer
- Ryan Preece
- Ty Dillon
- Brad Keselowski
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Alex Bowman
- Bubba Wallace
- Kyle Larson
- Josh Berry
- Zane Smith
- Chase Briscoe
- Noah Gragson
- Connor Zilisch
- Austin Hill
- Riley Herbst
- AJ Allmendinger
- Cody Ware
- Chad Finchum
The 2026 Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway is scheduled to occur on Sunday, July 19, at 7 p.m. ET on TNT Sports, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
