RYAN BLANEY UPSETS SHANE VAN GISBERGEN FOR WATKINS GLEN POLE
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Ryan Blaney claimed his second Busch Light Pole Award of the season Saturday afternoon at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International — his second of the season, 15th of his career and second-ever on a road course.
For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series championship career, Blaney will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen.
It was a dramatic effort for the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang, knocking the reigning road course master, 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, who endured a disappointing showing here a year ago when a poor qualifying effort left him in a vulnerable position. He was ultimately eliminated from the race on the opening lap.
Blaney 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 NASCAR 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 NASCAR 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 Chris Buescher, of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, 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.
–By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service, Special to Field Level Media
INDY CAR
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD WINS PORTLAND POLE; PATO O’WARD STARTING FIRST
What a difference a year has made for Arrow McLaren at Portland International Raceway.
Arrow McLaren teammates Christian Lundgaard and Pato O’Ward produced the two quickest laps, respectively, during the Firestone Fast Six qualifying session Saturday for the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland presented by askROI. A year ago at this event, the top two qualifiers for the team were Alexander Rossi in 18th and O’Ward in 23rd.
SEE: Qualifying Results | Starting Lineup/Tire Choice
O’Ward, clinging to his NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship hopes by a thread, will start from the pole because Lundgaard will be forced to move back six places on the grid to the seventh starting spot due to a penalty for an unapproved engine change after practice Friday. Both drivers improved considerably on Firestone alternate tires from practice this morning, when Lundgaard was seventh quickest and O’Ward 11th on Firestone primary tires.
“It’s a bit of a surprising qualifying considering where we were in practice,” O’Ward said. “We were still kind of inching away at trying to make it better. So many changes where we were last year to where we are. Christian, great job getting the fastest lap time there.
“The car just came alive. I don’t really have an explanation for it. We didn’t really change anything from practice, but sometimes that’s just the story with these Firestone tires.”
Lundgaard earned the third NTT P1 Award of his career and his first with Arrow McLaren, which he joined before this season, with a best lap of 58.3939 seconds in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. His last pole came in July 2023 for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing at Toronto, a race he won.
“As I crossed the line, I didn’t really expect it,” Lundgaard said. “I had a big push in Turn 5 and a big push in Turn 6. I didn’t really think that was it.
“This is the best-case scenario for us, obviously, with a six-place grid penalty. I’m just proud of the team. Another front-row lockout for the team, except only one of them will start there. I’m happy that we could at least help Pato on that side.”
O’Ward’s best time in the Firestone Fast Six was 58.5343 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Felix Rosenqvist will join him on the front row for the 110-lap race Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network) after his best Fast Six lap of 58.5583 in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian.
Starting third will be reigning Portland winner Will Power, who stopped the clocks at 58.6424 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. David Malukas will start fourth after his lap of 58.6557 in the No. 4 Gallagher Insurance Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises.
Championship leader Alex Palou received a small bonus by earning the fifth starting spot in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Palou went off track and nosed into the tire barrier in Turn 11 late in the Firestone Fast Six, losing his best lap for causing a local yellow that affected another competitor and ending up last in the final segment of qualifying.
Palou, who has won eight of 14 races this season, needs to lead O’Ward by 108 points after the race Sunday to clinch his third consecutive series championship and fourth title in the last five years. Palou leads O’Ward by 121 points entering this race on the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course.
“Happy that we had pace,” Palou said. “Obviously not happy that I went looking for mushrooms there in the Fast Six.”
Rossi just missed the Firestone Fast Six by .0163 of a second in the second round of qualifying, but he will start sixth in the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet due to Lundgaard’s penalty, tying his best starting spot of the season set in March at The Thermal Club.
