Ryan Blaney secured the pole position for the NASCAR Cup Series event at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, posting a lap time of 26.250 seconds. Teammate Joey Logano joined him on the front row, finishing just 0.032 seconds behind for an all-Team Penske lockout of the top two spots.
Blaney has won the last two Cup races at Phoenix, and Team Penske has repeatedly demonstrated superior pace at the Arizona circuit in recent seasons.
Chase Briscoe qualified third following consecutive victories at Las Vegas and Charlotte. Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell took fourth and fifth, respectively.
Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Michael McDowell, Josh Berry, and William Byron completed the top ten.
The major storyline from qualifying was championship leader Kyle Larson. Entering the weekend with a 49-point advantage in the standings, Larson will start 22nd, leaving him a compressed opening stage to navigate.
Historically, the winner at Phoenix has started within the top 15 in each of the previous 18 races. The most recent driver to win from outside the top 20 was Ryan Newman in 2017, who also started 22nd.
Carson Hocevar was the lowest-ranked Championship 4 contender in qualifying, slotting 28th. Both Hocevar and Larson experienced significant car movement during their timed laps, though no incidents occurred during the session.
“Proud of the lap for sure,” Blaney said after claiming the pole. “The car did everything it needed to and stuck when it had to, so it was an overall strong lap. I don’t consider myself the best qualifier at this track—I feel like I race better than I qualify—so I’m extremely proud of the effort from the entire No. 12 team for their work on finding qualifying speed. It’s a great starting position for the weekend. A Penske front row is fantastic, and hopefully we have something competitive for tomorrow.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, Blaney added: “I thought our car was reasonably quick in practice. We’ll continue making small adjustments, but conditions will be different tomorrow. It should be full sun and a bit warmer compared to today’s shaded, cooler conditions, so the track surface will change considerably. Hopefully we can adapt accordingly.”