Ryan Blaney won his fifth Busch Light Pole Award of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season for this weekend’s Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, October 17.
The event’s starting lineup was determined through an on-track qualifying session that consisted of a single-car, single-lap qualifying format. During the session, each of the 37 competitors vying for 37 starting spots cycled around Phoenix once to post the fastest lap amongst one another. The competitor who posted the single fastest lap was awarded the pole position.
During the session, Blaney, who was the fastest in practice earlier on Saturday, utilized his one-lap session to post a qualifying lap at 137.143 mph in 26.250 seconds. The lap was enough for the 2023 Cup Series champion from High Point, North Carolina, and driver of the No. 12 Menards/Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry to earn the top-starting spot of an upcoming event for a fifth time in 2026.
In addition to winning his fifth pole of the 2026 season, Blaney notched his 17th Cup Series career pole for his 411th series’ start and his fourth at Phoenix Raceway. Blaney, who has won the previous two Cup events at Phoenix, is currently ranked in fifth place in the Chase standings. He trails the points lead by 85 points with four Chase events remaining in his quest to contend for his second Cup Series championship.
“[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. Overall, really good lap. We’re not the best qualifier at this place. I feel like I race better than I qualify, so really, really proud of the effort by all the No. 12 boys for just working on how do we get qualifying speed and what do we need to do to get better. Great place to start the weekend. Hopefuly, we have something for [the competition] tomorrow.”
Blaney will share the front row with teammate Joey Logano, the latter of whom qualified in second place with a lap at 136.976 mph in 26.282 seconds and is trailing the points lead by 92 points from sixth place in the standings. Chase Briscoe, winner of the previous two Chase events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, respectively, qualified in third place with a lap at 136.825 mph in 26.311 seconds. Briscoe trails the points lead by 65 points from fourth place.
Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, both of whom are teammates of Briscoe’s at Joe Gibbs Racing and are the front-runners in the Chase standings, qualified in fourth and fifth, respectively, for Sunday’s main event at Phoenix. Hamlin and Bell are ranked in second and third in the Chase standings while trailing the points lead by 49 and 51 points, respectively.
Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Michael McDowell, Josh Berry and William Byron complete the top-10 starting grid, respectively. With eight of 16 Chase contenders (Blaney, Logano, Briscoe, Hamlin, Bell, Reddick, Gibbs and Byron) qualifying in the top-10 mark, the remaining Chasers that include Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece and Carson Hocevar will start 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd, 26th and 28th, respectively.
Larson, who starts in 22nd place after dealing with loose conditions, leads the Chase standings by 49 points, but will have to navigate his way to the front from the mid-pack region to contend for his third Phoenix victory and maintain his lead in the Chase standings en route to defend his series’ title.
With 37 competitors vying for 37 starting spots, all made the main event.
Phoenix – Starting Lineup:
- Ryan Blaney, 137.143 mph, 26.250 seconds
- Joey Logano, 136.976 mph, 26.282 seconds
- Chase Briscoe, 136.825 mph, 26.311 seconds
- Denny Hamlin, 136.809 mph, 26.314 seconds
- Christopher Bell, 136.617 mph, 26.351 seconds
- Tyler Reddick, 136.374 mph, 26.398 seconds
- Ty Gibbs, 136.291 mph, 26.414 seconds
- Michael McDowell, 136.199 mph, 26.432 seconds
- Josh Berry, 136.142 mph, 26.443 seconds
- William Byron, 135.936 mph, 26.483 seconds
- Ross Chastain, 135.782 mph, 26.513 seconds
- Connor Zilisch, 135.649 mph, 26.539 seconds
- Todd Gilliland, 135.338 mph, 26.600 seconds
- Daniel Suarez, 1355.308 mph, 26.606 seconds
- Austin Cindric, 135.059 mph, 26.655 seconds
- Chase Elliott, 134.998 mph, 26.667 seconds
- Chris Buescher, 134.943 mph, 26.678 seconds
- Brad Keselowski, 134.933 mph, 26.680 seconds
- Riley Herbst, 134.600 mph, 26.746 seconds
- Zane Smith, 134.569 mph, 26.752 seconds
- AJ Allmendinger, 134.524 mph, 26.761 seconds
- Kyle Larson, 134.484 mph, 26.769 seconds
- Bubba Wallace, 134.419 mph, 26.782 seconds
- Austin Dillon, 134.419 mph, 26.782 seconds
- Shane van Gisbergen, 134.338 mph, 26.798 seconds
- Ryan Preece, 134.333 mph, 26.799 seconds
- Cole Custer, 134.253 mph, 26.815 seconds
- Carson Hocevar, 134.223 mph, 26.821 seconds
- Erik Jones, 134.193 mph, 26.827 seconds
- Noah Gragson, 134.118 mph, 26.842 seconds
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 133.744 mph, 26.917 seconds
- John Hunter Nemechek, 133.615 mph, 26.932 seconds
- Ty Dillon, 133.546 mph, 26.957 seconds
- Alex Bowman, 133.403 mph, 26.986 seconds
- Austin Hill, 133.383 mph, 26.990 seconds
- Corey Heim, 133.323 mph, 27.002 seconds
- Cody Ware, 132.964 mph, 27.075 seconds
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
The 2026 Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway is scheduled to occur on Sunday, October 18, at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
