A fight broke out in the middle of qualifying, and yes, Blaney won the pole

AVONDALE, Ariz.—Ryan Blaney won the pole for the TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway but his accomplishment was overshadowed by a row between Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell. 

 

Suarez and McDowell didn’t even make it out of the first round of qualifying on Friday. Suarez, who qualified 28th, claimed McDowell blocked him from making a clean run. 

 

When the Stewart-Haas Racing driver attempted to discuss the situation with the driver of the No. 34 Ford, McDowell approached Suarez, who didn’t waste time body slamming his competitor.

 

“I’m the kind of driver that I’m going to give a lot of respect to you, always, if you give me respect back. If you don’t give me respect, I’m going to kick your ass.”

 

Both drivers had to be restrained before coming to the media bullpen. 

 

“It’s just a lack of respect,” Suarez said.“Track position is big in racing these days.  Everyone here in the garage knows that the second lap is the good one. You have to try to get out of the way if someone is coming in on their hot lap, and he didn’t. 

 

“He wasn’t going to get out the way in that second corner and he didn’t. I almost wrecked him and then he was disappointed because I was trying to wreck him afterward. But that’s just racing.”

 

McDowell described qualifying as chaotic. Fortunately, the driver was still wearing his helmet at the time of the altercation. 

 

“I always have my helmet on, just an old habit,” said McDowell, who qualified 27th. “It was just miscommunication on the race track. We were all waiting until the end and then just had a lot of traffic. Just unfortunate. He was upset that I held him up on his good lap and then he tried to crash us. I just didn’t appreciate it. 

 

“It’s heat of the moment stuff. Just racing. Shorter practice session. Shorter qualifying. Getting late going through tech. The intensity ramps up. It’s all a part of it.”

 

McDowell said he would clear the air with Suarez prior to Sunday’s race. They’ll start side-by-side on Row 14 and ride in the pace truck during the pre-race celebration. 

 

For Blaney, this could be the catalyst to jumpstart his season. The 25-year-old Team Penske racer is currently 15th in the Cup standings. He had not qualified better than 13th before scoring the pole on Friday, the sixth of his career.

 

“We’ve just got to clean some stuff up,” Blaney said. “While it’s nice to have Penske winning, I’m selfish—I want to win. It’s good to have our cars really fast, and our finishes definitely don’t reflect how we’ve been running.

 

“We’ve been really fast at all three places so far. If you keep bringing fast cars to the race track, ultimately, it’ll work out for you one of these times. I want to be part of the winning club here in the Penske group. It’s nice to have the whole team really fast right now. We fired out of the box really good this year, so hopefully, we can just keep it going.”

 

Blaney will share the front row with Chase Elliott. Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, William Byron, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Erik Jones, Daniel Hemric and Joey Logano rounded out the top 12 speeds. 

 

“I hate qualifying second,” Elliott said. “We qualified second out here last fall and then this one. But I guess (Blaney) isn’t a bad one to qualify second to. 

 

“But I look forward to Sunday. I think our Hooters Camaro at least has a good place to start and we can have a good pit selection. That’s important. We have a long race ahead. But I’d really like to get a pole outside of a speedway track. We’ll try again next week.”

 

What did Kyle Busch think of a fight breaking out in the time trials?

 

"I think it's fantastic," Busch said. "Whatever the fans want to see. I'm not much of a fighter. More of a lover."