Ryan Blaney leads Ford sweep of top five in Texas qualifying

Blaney just missed the track qualifying record, using an average lap speed of 200.505 mph in the final round to claim the pole for Sunday’s AAA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

The record of 200.915 mph was set by Kurt Busch in the 2017 spring race at the track.

The pole is Blaney’s third of the season and fifth of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career.

“It felt really fast. That is what you get with this night time qualifying. High speeds. That is really what you get," Blaney said. "That is cool doing under the lights qualifying. Speeds pick up and it has been cool here today.

"We have had a really good Ford all day and it is nice to back it up in qualifying. It doesn't mean a lot if you are fastest in practice and blow it in qualifying. It was cool to be solid all day. Really big thanks to this whole group for giving me a really great race car and I am excited to see how it is in race trim tomorrow."

Clint Bowyer ended up second-fastest (200.230 mph) and Kevin Harvick third (199.941 mph). Aric Almirola and Brad Keselowski completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 12 starters are Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, William Byron, Kyle Busch, Paul Menard and Erik Jones.

Round 2

Logano became the first driver on Friday to cross the 200 mph barrier when he led the second round with an average lap speed of 200.267 mph.

Harvick was second (199.498 mph) and Kurt Busch was third (199.483 mph) as Fords swept the top three positions.

Jones was fourth and Kyle Busch fifth.

Also advancing to the final round were Hamlin, Byron, Blaney, Bowyer, Menard, Keselowski and Almirola.

Reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. was knocked out of the 12th position late in the session by Almirola and will start Sunday’s race in 13th.

“For whatever reason we’ve fallen off here in qualifying since they repaved the track, but we always still seem to race well,” Truex said.

Also failing to advance to the final round were Ryan Newman, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman and Jimmie Johnson.

Round 1

Blaney, who was fastest in practice on Friday, ended up topping the first 15-minute qualifying session with an average lap speed of 199.682 mph.

Fellow Ford driver Harvick was second (199.152 mph) and Kyle Busch was third (198.624 mph). Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-five as Fords claimed four of the top-five positions.

Rounding out the Top 12 were Almirola, Byron, Jones, Logano, Jamie McMurray, Keselowski and Chris Buescher.

David Ragan spun off Turn 4 just as the session came to a close. His No. 38 Ford suffered some damage before he came to a rest in the frontstretch grass.

Among those who failed to advance out of the first round were A.J. Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Ragan.

Cla	#	Driver	4506	Time	Gap	Mph
1	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	26.932		200.505
2	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	26.969	0.037	200.230
3	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	27.008	0.076	199.941
4	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	27.030	0.098	199.778
5	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	27.064	0.132	199.527
6	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	27.101	0.169	199.255
7	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	27.105	0.173	199.225
8	22	Joey Logano	Ford	27.124	0.192	199.086
9	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	27.126	0.194	199.071
10	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	27.176	0.244	198.705
11	21	Paul Menard	Ford	27.279	0.347	197.954
12	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	27.293	0.361	197.853
13	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	27.278	0.346	197.962
14	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	27.283	0.351	197.925
15	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	27.312	0.380	197.715
16	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	27.316	0.384	197.686
17	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	27.329	0.397	197.592
18	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	27.336	0.404	197.542
19	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	27.356	0.424	197.397
20	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	27.358	0.426	197.383
21	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	27.399	0.467	197.087
22	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	27.437	0.505	196.815
23	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	27.449	0.517	196.728
24	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	27.479	0.547	196.514
25	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	27.550	0.618	196.007
26	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	27.646	0.714	195.327
27	38	David Ragan	Ford	27.661	0.729	195.221
28	95	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	27.728	0.796	194.749
29	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	27.767	0.835	194.475
30	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	27.778	0.846	194.398
31	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	28.066	1.134	192.404
32	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	28.148	1.216	191.843
33	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	28.228	1.296	191.299
34	96	Parker Kligerman	Toyota	28.256	1.324	191.110
35	23	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	28.381	1.449	190.268
36	99	Kyle Weatherman	Chevrolet	28.538	1.606	189.221
37	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	28.598	1.666	188.824
38	7	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	28.785	1.853	187.598
39	51	Joey Gase	Ford	29.496	2.564	183.076
40	97	David Starr	Toyota	29.784	2.852	181.305