NASCAR: Blaney Recovers from Spin to Claim Pole at COTA

Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney will start from pole position in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – becoming the first multi-time pole winner of the 2022 season. It’s his second pole this year and eighth in his career.

Blaney’s lap of 92.759 mph around the 3.41-mile road course in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford held up to a late session charge by Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez, who edged Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer for the outside of the front row but was still just .026-seconds off Blaney’s fastest lap.

“I wouldn’t really say I’m a great road course racer by any means, I enjoy road courses a lot but never been in great contention to win one,” Blaney said, adding, “So I would say I’m an average road course racer. And honestly what made me happy about the pole was that we were fifth in our [first round] group and barely made the Round of 10 and then picked up half a second from first round, so I was as proud we picked up that speed.”

Custer will start third, lining up alongside Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick. Hendrick Motorsports’ driver Alex Bowman, Penske’s Joey Logano, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, Kaulig Racing’s Justin Haley and Penske rookie Austin Cindric rounded out the Top-10 in final qualifying.

It was quite the day’s comeback for Blaney, 28, who went off course and hit the soft barriers during opening practice but was able to rebound to the top position when it mattered most.

“Talk about an up and down day for sure, from putting it in the barriers on my third lap and not knowing if the car was killed, if we would have to go to a back-up, what it was going to take to fix it,” Blaney said, noting the incident with the barriers knocked his left-side mirrors off, preventing him from being able to really see the damage on the left side.

“I got out of the car and looked at it and it was scuffed up but not too bad,” he said. “They went through everything thoroughly and nothing was bent so got really lucky, honestly from a mistake of mine. Really lucky we hit those plastic blocks.

“And then to have speed to put it on the pole, I didn’t even know if we were going to be able to qualify after we wrecked so to come back and have a fast enough car to make it to the second round and then the final round and barely beat Daniel there was fun.

“Up and down day, glad it ended on a high note.”

Notably absent from the final 10-car round were defending COTA race winner Chase Elliott, who was 12th fastest in qualifying. His reigning series champion Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson was 13th fastest.

Kyle Busch, a four-time road course winner, was only 15th fastest qualifying lap and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. – another four-time road course winner – was only 17th fastest. Road course ace A.J. Allmendinger was 20th – fast in practice but having a hiccup in qualifying.

“Talk about an up and down day,” Blaney said. “From putting it in the barriers my third lap and not knowing if the car was killed. I didn’t really know how bad the damage was; I knew the wheel was straight and the tires were flat-spotted. (The team) went through it thoroughly and nothing was bent. I was really lucky.”

During his post-qualifying media availability, Blaney said he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to qualify after he hit in practice and hit the soft wall. But the team recovered and narrowly edged out Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez by 0.026 seconds for the top spot heading into Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Cole Custer, Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman round out the top five finishers in qualifying.

Apart from recovering from his spin in practice, Blaney said he was impressed with the team’s efforts to make the car better during each round of group qualifying.

Qualifying Results