Ten drivers advanced to the final round of qualifying after an initial round of time-trial runs on the 3.41-mile COTA circuit.
Six road races are on the The 2022 Cup Series schedule: at COTA, Sonoma, Road America, Indianapolis, Watkins Glen and the Charlotte ROVAL.
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Who won the pole for the NASCAR race at COTA?
Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney earned the pole position with a qualifying speed of 92.759 mph. He did that despite crashing in practice and damaging the left side of his car.
“Talk about an up-and-down day for sure, from putting it in the barriers on my third lap and not knowing if the car was killed, if we would have to go to a backup, what it was going to take to fix it,” he said, per NASCAR.com.
Blaney had to sweat out the qualifying run of TrackHouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez, who turned in a lap of 92.741 mph. That run earned Suarez the second spot on the grid for Sunday’s race (3:49 p.m. ET green flag; Fox, TSN, PRN).
This is Blaney’s second pole of the season. He qualified first for the March 13 race at Phoenix.
Starting lineup for COTA race
The field for Sunday’s race includes a handful of road-course specialists: AJ Allmendinger, Loris Hezemans, Boris Said, Joey Hand and Andy Lally. Allmendinger is racing full time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Kaz Grala is making his second start of the season. He’s driving for TMT Racing, the organization backed by boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. Grala qualified for the Daytona 500 in February and finished 26th.
