Ryan Blaney Takes Pole Position for Sunday's Race at Phoenix

The grueling west coast trip for the Cup Series comes a close this weekend at Phoenix Raceway. A total of 36 drivers are lined up to race in tomorrow's Ruoff Mortgage 500, the fourth round on the 2022 calendar.

Ryan Blaney captured pole position for tomorrow's race as the Team Penske driver put down a lap at 132.709 mph in the final round of qualifying. Joining Blaney on the front row will be Denny Hamlin, who is just as hungry for a win after his disappointing race at Fontana last weekend.

"I thought you were going to have to go a little bit quicker, and I saw everyone not going as fast," Blaney said. "I was like, well, let's try and hit the same lap I did, but I kind of gave a little bit back off Turn 4. Had me nervous, but had enough of a cushion. Proud of everybody in this whole group. Definitely needed it after our early end to last week in Vegas. Hopefully we can stay up front tomorrow and have a shot at it."

"Everyone on the team is very confident," said Hamlin. "We know what we’re capable of and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota are doing a great job giving us cars capable of running up front. It’s just a matter of getting to the finish without anything crazy happening and unfortunately, that has been easier said than done so far. At the end of the day, we just have to go out and execute and we’ll be fine."

All three manufacturers earned a top three starting position on Sunday, with William Byron starting 3rd in his Chevrolet. Hamlin's teammate Christopher Bell will start directly behind him in the No. 20 Toyota. Row 3 belongs to Stewart Haas Racing teammates Aric Almirola and Chase Briscoe. Row 4 consists of reigning champion Kyle Larson and Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric, who was fastest in practice. Last weekend's winner Alex Bowman and Team Penske's Joey Logano round out the top ten starters.

Just missing out on advancing to the final round of qualifying were Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing teammates Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon. Erik Jones and Kurt Busch will also have decent starting positions inside the top 15 on Sunday.

Kyle Busch is coming off of a frustrating weekend at Fontana, which began with a practice just minutes into practice. He battled through the field in a backup car, leading 49 laps before a late caution flag came out while he was leading. Phoenix has always been one of Kyle's best tracks, as he had a stretch of ten races from 2015-20 with a pair of wins and only one finish outside of the top six. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is 2nd on the all-time laps led at Phoenix.

Kevin Harvick starts 16th tomorrow at a place where he used to dominate. The veteran driver has owned this track over the years with nine career wins and becoming the all-time laps leader at Phoenix. If he finishes in the top ten, he will tie the record for most at a single track with 18. The Stewart Haas Racing driver is still trying to snap his 46-race winless streak that dates back to the 2020 season. Harvick has scored stage points in 16 of the 20 stages he's raced here, and hasn't finished outside of the top ten since 2013.

Martin Truex Jr is the defending Spring race winner but he qualified in 20th position this afternoon, one spot behind Chase Elliott.

Toyota is winless in the last eight races and 25 drivers have finished in the top ten through three races this season, tying the most through three races since 1973. Reddick and Ross Chastain rank first and second in laps led in 2022, both leading more laps this season than their entire career prior. No driver has led over 100 laps yet in a single race this season.

The race distance is 312 laps around the one-mile oval in Avondale, Arizona. Nine teams lost a crew member and pit selection for Sunday’s race after failing pre-qualifying inspection twice on Saturday morning. The drivers of those cars were Tyler Reddick, Garrett Smithley, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Todd Gilliland, Cole Custer, Ty Dillon, Erik Jones, and Landon Cassill.

Coverage for tomorrow's Ruoff Mortgage 500 at Phoenix Raceway begins at 3:30 PM ET on FOX.