Blaney Extends Cup Surge With Third Pole In Five Races

Ryan Blaney celebrates the Busch Light Pole at Richmond Raceway Friday. (Matthew Thacker/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

By Thomas Hughes, SWN Staff Writer

RICHMOND, Va. (Aug. 14, 2026) — Ryan Blaney is heating up at just the right time.

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion claimed his second consecutive Busch Light Pole Award Friday evening at Richmond Raceway, edging Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe by five-hundredths of a second.

Blaney’s top time of 22.225 seconds (121.485 mph) around the three-quarter-mile, D-shaped oval in the No. 12 BODYARMOR Flash IV Ford Mustang Dark Horse gave him the 16th pole position of his career at stock car racing’s premier level.

It marked Blaney’s fourth pole of the season and continues a heater run of time trials recently, after he also topped qualifying last weekend at Iowa Speedway.

During the qualifying session, drivers were forced to make the most of their first lap due to aging tires that rendered the second lap a lost cause.

“[Crew chief Jonathan Hassler] and I just kinda worked through, OK, how can we get [the car better],” Blaney said. “… Here, it’s super tough because your last lap in practice to qualifying, you’re about to qualify three seconds faster than what you just ran, so it’s, how do you mentally switch over to that and figure out how to do it in one lap? Because the second lap today wasn’t gonna do it.

“Jonathan has done a good job of just trying to work through on, ‘How do we get better?’ And it’s been fun to work through that.”

RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski held the top-time after the early goings until teammate Ryan Preece bested his time with a 22.435-second lap. Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry then assumed the provisional pole, besting the prior top time by over a tenth.

Berry’s 22.281-second time did not stand as No. 1, however, being passed by Briscoe by .006 seconds and finally, by Blaney in the end.

The Team Penske driver’s first-place starting slot is his fourth in the past five races, after North Wilkesboro Speedway’s qualifying session was rained out.

“I appreciate the cloud,” Blaney remarked of the overcast conditions that arrived just before his qualifying run. “I think a handful of us got the benefit of the cloud. We had a really good day. I thought our car was decent in practice. Qualifying is always super tough here.

“After running 50 or 60 laps in practice here, you're going to go out and run about three seconds faster than what your last lap was. You just hope you hit it right,” he added. “The No. 12 car was great ... I'm excited for tomorrow. It's going to be a fun night under the lights. Hopefully we’ve got something for them.”

Briscoe joins Blaney on the front row in the No. 19 Toyota, followed by Berry, JGR’s Ty Gibbs, and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron.

Series point leader and home-state favorite Denny Hamlin rolls off 14th Saturday night.

As for the Chase cutline, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric enters the event with a 29-point lead over Preece for the final spot in the 16-team postseason field. Cindric will start in 23rd — lower than any of the four drivers behind him in points.

As for those four behind him – Preece; Ross Chastain; Keselowski; and Erik Jones – Preece is the lone of the four who will start in the top three rows. Preece will start the Cook Out 400 from the sixth position; while Keselowski will start 10th, Chastain in 18th and Jones in 21st.

Chastain jumped three spots in the standings after a seventh-place finish at Iowa, his fifth top-10 of the season.

Following qualifying at Richmond, he stated that he thought the car could have qualified better if the traction was more dialed-in.

“I felt like we were OK, not great [in practice at Richmond],” Chastain said. “Then qualifying, we were close to being great, and then, just got really, really loose. Late exit [on] both ends. Could have been several rows ahead had I gotten the traction down — but not quite.”

In spite of the lack of a single-digit starting position for tomorrow’s race, Chastain believes the team still is inherently faster than it was three months ago.

“This 18th-place qualifying — although not great today — would have been 28th three months ago,” he cracked.

Meanwhile, Preece is the only driver in the top 20 without a top-five finish this season, though he has secured five top-10s and three stage wins.

“Having good track position to start is going to be important, and then not giving that throughout the night — we can’t afford to [give up position],” Preece said. “We need to play offense and look forward, make the 2 [of Austin Cindric] and the 97 [of Shane van Gisbergen] worry about us.”

Pivoting back to the top of the order, behind Preece, Toyota drivers Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing and Christopher Bell of JGR will start seventh and eighth, respectively.

Keselowski’s spot on the fifth row comes alongside three-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano in 10th.

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon is the two-time defending winner of the event; he will start the race in 16th. Bell and Rick Ware Racing’s Cody Ware both have their car chiefs ejected for the rest of the weekend and pit-stall selection forfeited after both teams failed pre-race tech inspection twice.

Bell is sixth in points, while Ware is 35th.

The Cook Out 400 is set for 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 15, with the race being aired live on USA, HBO Max, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.