Qualifying report
NASCAR Cup Richmond
NASCAR Cup Richmond starting lineup: Ryan Blaney takes pole position
Ryan Blaney will share the front row with Chase Briscoe at Richmond Raceway
Nick DeGroot
Edited: Aug 15, 2026, 5:58 AM
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Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
Photo by: David Jensen / Getty Images
The grid is set for Saturday night's NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway. Team Penske's Ryan Blaney earned pole position in the No. 12 Ford, running a fast lap of 22.225s. He will share the front row with Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, who missed the pole by 0.050s.
"I appreciate the cloud," said Blaney after practice. "I think a handful of us got the benefit of the cloud. We had a really good day. I thought our car was decent in practice. Qualifying is always super tough here. After running 50 or 60 laps in practice here, you're going to go out and run about three seconds faster than what your last lap was. You just hope you hit it right. The No. 12 car was great ... I'm excited for tomorrow. It's going to be a fun night under the lights. Hopefully we got something for them."
Josh Berry qualified third, Ty Gibbs fourth, and William Byron fifth. Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski, and Joey Logano filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Qualifying recap
Watch: Silver lining: Blaney credits cloud cover after winning Richmond pole
The first lap was the 'money' lap as the tires fell off too much to make the second lap worth it. Keselowski set the early benchmark at a 22.491s, and held P1 until RFK Racing teammate Ryan Preece set a 22.435s lap.
They remained 1-2 for a bit, but Berry was the next driver to take provisional pole, going much faster with a 22.281s lap. It was then Briscoe who eclipsed Berry by just 0.006s, and finally Blaney who went out near the very end of the session.
There were no incidents and 35 of the 36 entries put down a lap. Cody Ware, who spun in practice, did not.
Austin Cindric entered this race with the 16th and final spot inside the Chase field, and he will start 23rd.
NASCAR Cup Richmond Lineup
cla # driver manufacturer time gap mph 1 12 
Ryan Blaney Ford 22.225 121.485 2 19 Chase Briscoe Toyota 22.275 0.050 121.212 3 21 Josh Berry Ford 22.281 0.056 121.179 4 54 Ty Gibbs Toyota 22.295 0.070 121.103 5 24 William Byron Chevrolet 22.347 0.122 120.822 6 60 Ryan Preece Ford 22.435 0.210 120.348 7 23 Bubba Wallace Toyota 22.450 0.225 120.267 8 20 Christopher Bell Toyota 22.459 0.234 120.219 9 6 Brad Keselowski Ford 22.491 0.266 120.048 10 22 Joey Logano Ford 22.495 0.270 120.027 11 88 Connor Zilisch Chevrolet 22.510 0.285 119.947 12 42 John Hunter Nemechek Toyota 22.514 0.289 119.925 13 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 22.524 0.299 119.872 14 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 22.532 0.307 119.830 15 16 AJ Allmendinger Chevrolet 22.546 0.321 119.755 16 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 22.575 0.350 119.601 17 35 Riley Herbst Toyota 22.577 0.352 119.591 18 1 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 22.579 0.354 119.580 19 17 Chris Buescher Ford 22.606 0.381 119.437 20 7 
Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 22.622 0.397 119.353 21 43 Erik Jones Toyota 22.631 0.406 119.305 22 77 Carson Hocevar Chevrolet 22.632 0.407 119.300 23 2 Austin Cindric Ford 22.655 0.430 119.179 24 38 Zane Smith Ford 22.665 0.440 119.126 25 48 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 22.684 0.459 119.027 26 71 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 22.690 0.465 118.995 27 34 Todd Gilliland Ford 22.712 0.487 118.880 28 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr Chevrolet 22.724 0.499 118.817 29 41 Cole Custer Chevrolet 22.726 0.501 118.807 30 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 22.742 0.517 118.723 31 97 
Shane van Gisbergen Chevrolet 22.773 0.548 118.561 32 45 Tyler Reddick Toyota 22.776 0.551 118.546 33 33 Austin Hill Chevrolet 22.780 0.555 118.525 34 10 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 22.789 0.564 118.478 35 4 Noah Gragson Ford 22.858 0.633 118.121 36 66 Josh Bilicki Ford 23.302 1.077 115.870 37 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet
Photos from Richmond - Friday
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
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Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
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Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
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Richmond - Friday, in photos
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Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
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Richmond - Friday, in photos
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Richmond - Friday, in photos
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Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
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Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
Richmond - Friday, in photos
NASCAR Cup
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