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
