Ryan Blaney on the pole at Watkins Glen
Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images
WATKINSGLEN, N.Y.—Ryan Blaney claimed his second Busch Light Pole Award of the season Saturday afternoon at Watkins Glen International. It’s the 15th of his career and the second ever on a road course.
For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, he’ll lead the field to green in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
It was a dramatic effort for the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang, knocking the reigning road course master in Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen from the top spot on the speed chart by a slight .33-seconds, with a lap of 122.568 mph around the historic 2.45-mile road course in scenic Upstate New York.
It was a markedly different day for the 31-year-old North Carolinian Blaney a year ago, suffering a disappointing showing when a poor qualifying effort left him in a vulnerable position and ultimately being eliminated from the race on the opening lap.
He acknowledged that beating the road racing ace van Gisbergen on Sunday will be another story.
“Ninety laps is going to be a little harder to beat him tomorrow, but gotta start somewhere,” the 2023 Cup Series champion said with a smile. “It’s more neat for me because we had an absolutely abysmal weekend here last year. …
“We’ve worked really hard on where we need to get better here, where I need to do a better job, how can we improve our race cars. So it was like a big dual effort. Just proud of their dedication to get better at this place and improving the car from last year, and I tried to work on a lot of things. I consider myself a pretty average road-course racer and I’ve worked really hard on trying to get better, where can I improve my driving skills and styles and compete a little bit more at these places, and it’s neat when that all comes together.
“I try to take these things one day at a time. Tomorrow is a whole different task, but it’s nice to have done our job really well today and now about focusing on trying to make 90 good laps tomorrow.”
It is the 150th Cup Series pole for Team Penske, making the storied organization only the fourth team in series history to eclipse that mark.
Blaney and van Gisbergen – who has three road-course wins on the season – will lead the field to the green flag, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe, van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain and Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch, who for much of the qualifying session looked to have had a front row start.
“That’s not bad,” said a smiling Busch, who won from pole position at Watkins Glen in 2008.
“Great job by everyone on this Chevrolet,” he added. “Feels good to have a good solid effort like that right now.”
Defending Watkins Glen race winner Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher will roll off 12th in the No. 17 RFK Ford. He holds the 16th and final points position among the 16 drivers currently aiming for the playoffs with three regular-season races remaining. His teammate Ryan Preece sits just 23 points behind him in the standings and will start 17th.
Their team co-owner, Brad Keselowski, who also needs a victory in one of the remaining three regular-season races, will start 16th. Keselowski has back-up drivers on standby for the next three weeks as his wife Paige is due to give birth to their fourth child. Road-course ace Joey Hand is at Watkins Glen.
Championship points leader William Byron – the 2023 Watkins Glen winner – will roll off 10th. His teammate Chase Elliott, a two-time Watkins Glen winner who is 18 points behind Byron with three regular-season races remaining, will start 20th.
NASCAR Cup Series
Starting Line Up by Row
Watkins Glen International
Go Bowling at The Glen
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 8/9/2025 @ 02:22 PM Eastern
Driver Date Time Speed
Track Race Record: William Byron 08/20/23 1:58:44 111.426
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
Row 1: 1 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford 71.960 122.568
2 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # WeatherTech Chevrolet 71.993 122.512
Row 2: 3 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 71.997 122.505
4 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Chevrolet 72.081 122.362
Row 3: 5 8 Kyle Busch zone/Fastrac Chevrolet 72.144 122.255
6 71 Michael McDowell Go Bowling Chevrolet 72.180 122.195
Row 4: 7 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 72.199 122.162
8 77 Carson Hocevar Delaware Life Chevrolet 72.200 122.161
Row 5: 9 20 Christopher Bell DEWALT Toyota 72.210 122.144
10 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 72.215 122.135
Row 6: 11 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 72.235 122.101
12 17 Chris Buescher BuildSubmarines.com Ford 72.265 122.051
Row 7: 13 2 Austin Cindric Snap on Ford 72.300 121.992
14 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 72.304 121.985
Row 8: 15 23 Bubba Wallace McDonald's Toyota 72.412 121.803
16 6 Brad Keselowski Nexlizet Ford 72.427 121.778
Row 9: 17 60 Ryan Preece Mohawk Northeast Inc. Ford 72.443 121.751
18 16 AJ Allmendinger Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet 72.451 121.737
Row 10: 19 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 72.461 121.721
20 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 72.465 121.714
Row 11: 21 45 Tyler Reddick The Beast Toyota 72.487 121.677
22 11 Denny Hamlin Progressive Toyota 72.507 121.643
Row 12: 23 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 72.552 121.568
24 21 Josh Berry Freightliner Ford 72.576 121.528
Row 13: 25 87 Connor Zilisch(i) Red Bull Chevrolet 72.603 121.483
26 3 Austin Dillon Breztri Chevrolet 72.667 121.376
Row 14: 27 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 72.718 121.290
28 34 Todd Gilliland Overplay Ford 72.718 121.290
Row 15: 29 35 Riley Herbst # Monster Energy Zero Sugar Toyota 72.736 121.260
30 43 Erik Jones Family Dollar Toyota 72.764 121.214
Row 16: 31 42 John Hunter Nemechek Mobil 1 Toyota 72.838 121.091
32 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Ford 72.923 120.949
Row 17: 33 10 Ty Dillon Sea Best Chevrolet 72.989 120.840
34 38 Zane Smith Long John Silver's Ford 73.153 120.569
Row 18: 35 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Real American Beer Chevrolet 73.170 120.541
36 4 Noah Gragson A&W Root Beer Ford 73.190 120.508
Row 19: 37 51 Cody Ware Evel Knievel Museum Ford 73.698 119.678
38 78 Katherine Legge Desnuda Chevrolet 74.504 118.383
Row 20: 39 44 JJ Yeley(i) Syracuse Football NIL Chevrolet 74.955 117.671
40 66 Josh Bilicki(i) Southern Tier Security Ford 75.092 117.456
Did Not Qualify: None.
Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 18 0 Ford 13 0
Toyota 9 0
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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