Team Penske showcased their speed and teamwork during Saturday morning’s qualifying session at Atlanta Motor Speedway, securing the top four starting positions for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 (3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Ryan Blaney, the 2023 Cup Series champion, claimed his first pole position of the season and the 11th of his career with a lap of 179.371 mph in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford. His teammates, Austin Cindric and Joey Logano, will join him on the front row, with Cindric just .002 seconds behind and Logano in fourth.
“It’s a big testament to our whole group, Team Penske and Wood Brothers, to be the top four,” the 31-year-old Blaney said. “It just shows you how similar all our cars are being right there together, so hope it translates to the race tomorrow in handling, and we’ll find out. Pretty cool day.”
Wood Brothers Racing driver Josh Berry, driving a Penske-affiliated Ford Mustang, qualified third, cementing the team’s dominance in the session.
Fords dominated the qualifying session, earning 10 of the first 11 positions on the grid. Front Row Motorsports also had an impressive showing, with Todd Gilliland qualifying fifth and his teammates Zane Smith and Noah Gragson in seventh and 10th, respectively.
Kyle Busch, driving the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, was the lone Chevrolet driver among the top positions, qualifying sixth. Busch was part of last season’s thrilling three-wide finish alongside Blaney and race winner Daniel Suárez, which was recently featured in the short film “So Damn Close.”
Suárez, who won last year’s race by a narrow margin in the closest three-wide finish in series history, will start 29th in the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.
Toyota struggled in the qualifying session, with only two cars cracking the top 20. 23XI Racing teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick will start 14th and 18th, respectively. The Joe Gibbs Racing team had a challenging session, with Chase Briscoe starting 25th, Christopher Bell 32nd, Ty Gibbs 36th, and Denny Hamlin 37th on the 39-car grid.
Despite the promising qualifying results, Blaney acknowledged that the superspeedway-style racing at Atlanta creates a lot of drama, similar to the bigger drafting tracks like Daytona and Talladega.
“That’s the start and hopefully it stays that way, but things are going to change during the race,” Blaney said. “It’s not going to be that way the whole race. You’re going to get shuffled at some point and strategy is going to come into play so it’s how do you react to that. But it’s nice to all start together.”
Blaney emphasized the importance of teamwork and communication among the Penske drivers to maintain their track position and stay out of danger throughout the race.
As the Ambetter Health 400 approaches, all eyes will be on Team Penske to see if they can translate their qualifying success into a race win at the challenging 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway.
