Aric Almirola fastest of the dominant Fords in Atlanta qualifying

HAMPTON, Ga. — In a qualifying session full of fast Fords, Aric Almirola was the fastest, winning his first pole of the NASCAR Cup Series season.

Almirola posted a lap of 31.261 seconds Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, averaging 177.346 MPH.

Almirola outpaced Ryan Blaney by 0.014 seconds for his fifth career Cup Series pole.

Chase Briscoe (-0.035 secs.), Joey Logano (-0.083 secs), Harrison Burton (-0.096 secs) and Kevin Harvick (-0.112 secs) nailed down Ford’s domination of the top six starting spots.

Ty Gibbs (-0.114 secs) and Kyle Larson (-0.127 secs) qualified seventh and eighth. They were the only two non-Ford drivers who made the final round.

Todd Gilliland (-0.143 secs) and Austin Cindric (-0.221 secs) rounded out the top 10 in their Ford entries.

The Quaker State 400 is scheduled for Sunday, July 9 at 7 p.m. ET.

The rest of the lineup is as follows, from 11th to 37th:

• Brad Keselowski
• Tyler Reddick
• Ryan Preece
• Denny Hamlin
• Chris Buescher
• Martin Truex Jr.
• Justin Haley
• William Byron
• A.J. Allmendinger
• Michael McDowell
• Cole Custer
• Kyle Busch
• Chase Elliott
• J.J. Yeley
• Erik Jones
• Daniel Suarez
• Ty Dillon
• Corey LaJoie
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
• Ross Chastain
• Noah Gragson
• Austin Hill
• Austin Dillon
• Christopher Bell
• B.J. McLeod
• Alex Bowman
• Bubba Wallace