Ryan Blaney will lead the 37-car field to the green flag in Sunday’s tradition-rich Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway as the No. 1 qualifier.

Blaney drove his No. 12 Team Penske Dark Horse Ford Mustang to the pole during Saturday’s Bush’s Beans Qualifying with a fast speed of 127.064 mph.

Four-time season winner Tyler Reddick will line up on the front row alongside Blaney as the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota claimed the No. 2 qualifying position with a speed of 126.871 mph

It is Blaney’s second pole at Bristol Motor Speedway in 19 races and the 13th pole in his Cup Series career. Blaney has won at Bristol in both the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, but has yet to win a Cup Series race at the famed half-mile.

“It’s been a pretty good track for us,” Blaney said. “I feel like we’ve led a lot of laps in those races early and we just kind of fade to a third to fifth-place car at the end of the race. We worked really hard on trying to figure out how do we look ahead to the end of the race at this place because I feel like it kind of gets away from us, so I’ve tried to do a better job, here especially, of thinking where is the track going to go at lap 300, 400-plus and try to be a little bit more in contention and in the game when it comes down to that.” So,

Should Blaney earn a Cup victory tomorrow afternoon (3 p.m. ET, FS1 and PRN Radio) he would join an elite list of drivers who have won at Bristol in all three major NASCAR divisions, including Mark Martin; Joey Logano; Kyle Busch; Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, and Brad Keselowski.

“I would definitely like to win here,” said Blaney, who had one of the best 10-lap averages during Cup practice at 123.393 mph. “It would be cool to win here in all three series, so hopefully we can accomplish that.”

The Cup Series will run the new short track package which includes 750-horsepower engines and a softer tire. Blaney enjoys the challenge of racing at a track that has some unpredictability.

“I enjoy it like when we have new rules like we had today at this track for the first time,” Blaney said. “I always look forward to it. I’m a pretty open-minded person, so with stuff I try to just have my little idea of what I think it’s going to do, but then I just see what it’s like in practice and try to adjust my style towards that. I try not to get too locked in my ways when there are new things like this. I feel like you have to be open-minded, so that stuff is fun to me. Repetitiveness, I think, can sometimes get boring, so when you have these new things like that and an unpredictability with the package and stuff like that, you don’t know what to expect, that stuff is fun. It’s fun to work through it with your team. It’s fun to work through it as a driver out there running. It makes it pretty exciting behind the wheel for sure.”

With first impressions, Blaney said in practice and qualifying the track was showing some fangs with the new package.

“It’s a handful, that’s for sure,” Blaney said. “I thought our pace was pretty good in practice, but I was having to work really hard to keep the pace and about busted my butt a couple times and had to come in and make an adjustment. So, yeah, it’s gonna be a handful. I feel like you get more laps on tires it’s gonna just be even more worse. If it’s warmer tomorrow and the sun is out, it’s gonna be even more of a handful, so I think it’s good, it’s positive. I got behind some guys in practice and the aero piece is better than in the past I feel like. I still feel like there’s room for improvement, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. But, yeah, you’re gonna have a lot of guys with their hands full. I think you’re gonna see a lot of snap loose off of corners. That kind of seemed to be a big trend in practice and then in the race when you’re trying to push hard and pass somebody, you’re gonna get in those uh-oh moments of trying to throttle down and you’re gonna see a lot of guys about wreck and some of them might.”

Chase Briscoe qualified third at 126.779 mph in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Riley Herbst (125.679 mph), the third driver to make a qualifying run, was fourth, giving 23XI two of the top four starting positions.

Ty Gibbs, who led 201 laps in his last Bristol start, was fifth, followed by Ross Chastain in the fastest Chevrolet. Chris Buescher, three-time Bristol winner Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric and Carson Hocevar filled out positions seven through 10 on the grid.

The cars of Larson and Chastain—along with those of Cole Custer and Knoxville-native Chad Finchum—failed pre-race inspection twice, resulting in the ejection of their respective car chiefs and loss of pit selection for Sunday’s race.

The No. 71 Chevrolet of Michael McDowell also failed twice, resulting in the ejection of an engineer and loss of pit selection.

Tickets are available for Sunday's Food City 500 by visiting www.BMSTIX.com or by calling the Bristol Motor Speedway ticket sales center at (866) 415-4158. For the ultimate value, children’s tickets (12 and under) are only $10 with a paid adult for the Food City 500.

- Story by staff reports and NASCAR Newswire

NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying - Food City 500
Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol, Tennessee
Saturday, April 11, 2026

          1. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 127.064 mph.

          2. (45) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 126.871 mph.

          3. (19) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 126.779 mph.

          4. (35) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 126.679 mph.

          5. (54) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 126.537 mph.

          6. (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 126.445 mph.

          7. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 126.320 mph.

          8. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 126.303 mph.

          9. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 126.237 mph.

          10. (77) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 126.229 mph.

          11. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 126.030 mph.

          12. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 125.980 mph.

          13. (7) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 125.963 mph.

          14. (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 125.732 mph.

          15. (38) Zane Smith, Ford, 125.601 mph.

          16. (4) Noah Gragson, Ford, 125.584 mph.

          17. (60) Ryan Preece, Ford, 125.559 mph.

          18. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 125.535 mph.

          19. (71) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 125.486 mph.

          20. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 125.322 mph.

          21. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 125.313 mph.

          22. (16) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 125.224 mph.

          23. (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 125.158 mph.

          24. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 125.052 mph.

          25. (21) Josh Berry, Ford, 124.889 mph.

          26. (88) Connor Zilisch #, Chevrolet, 124.857 mph.

          27. (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 124.857 mph.

          28. (43) Erik Jones, Toyota, 124.776 mph.

          29. (8) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 124.686 mph.

          30. (41) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 124.565 mph.

          31. (42) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 124.058 mph.

          32. (10) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 123.810 mph.

          33. (97) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 123.682 mph.

          34. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 123.364 mph.

          35. (34) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 123.055 mph.

          36. (51) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 122.898 mph.

          37. (66) Chad Finchum (i), Ford, 122.131 mph.