Ryan Blaney is going to lead the field to the green flag for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway. It is the 33rd race of the 2026 season, and the 2023 series champion made sure his intentions were clear right from the start of the weekend.
The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford captured his 17th career Busch Light Pole Award on Saturday afternoon. Blaney threw down a hot lap of 137.143 mph around the 1-mile Arizona oval, backing up a quick session earlier in the day where he also topped the charts at 133.487 mph across 77 laps. Joey Logano locked out the front row for the organization by putting his Team Penske machine right alongside his teammate with a 136.976 mph circuit.
Joe Gibbs Racing seized control of the rest of the top five on the starting grid for the Freeway Insurance 500. Chase Briscoe claimed third with a lap of 136.825 mph, Denny Hamlin took fourth at 136.809 mph, and Christopher Bell rounded out the top five at 136.617 mph.
Meanwhile, the narrative took a sharp turn for series points leader Kyle Larson. Facing his first postseason slipup, Larson suffered a nerve-wracking moment entering Turns 1 and 2 during his qualifying run. The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was desperately loose on corner entry, lacking any meaningful grip and sending his time tumbling down to 22nd on the board. It stands as Larson's worst non-metric-based qualifying effort since Richmond Raceway in August and his worst in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 so far.
Larson's struggles extended through practice, where he managed only the 13th quickest single lap and sat 10th and ninth best in the 25- and 30-consecutive-lap averages. By contrast, Bell set the pace on consecutive runs of 10-plus laps, while Carson Hocevar posted the top time on the five-consecutive-lap average alongside a 133.433 mph single-lap speed that put him second quickest in practice.
Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Michael McDowell, Josh Berry, and William Byron filled out the remainder of the top 10 on the starting grid, setting up a fascinating battle for Sunday's race.
