NASCAR Cup Iowa starting lineup: Ryan Blaney earns pole over Kyle Larson

Ryan Blaney secured pole position at Iowa with a 23.474s lap in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford, beating the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Kyle Larson by 0.018s. Blaney’s Penske teammate Joey Logano will start third.

This will be Blaney’s 15th career pole and his first at Iowa. He also won the inaugural Cup race at Iowa in 2024.

“Really cool day. I appreciate the really fast car. Our Ford Mustang was fast in practice and I was able to lay down a good lap. My first lap wasn’t what I wanted. Fortunately, we had enough grip. The car kind of came in. I changed my line up a little bit for the second one to run a little bit faster and hang on for the pole.

“It’s a special helmet we got this weekend (a tribute to Kyle Busch). It’s nice — hopefully that helmet makes the trip to Victory Lane.”

Watch: Ryan Blaney shows off Kyle Busch tribute helmet at Iowa

Brad Keselowski qualified fourth, but crashed on his second lap, and will have to go to the rear of the field. Tyler Reddick was fifth, Ty Gibbs sixth, Austin Dillon seventh, Connor Zilisch eighth, Ross Chastain ninth, and Erik Jones tenth.

This marks the first time Zilisch has ever qualified inside the top ten on an oval in his Cup career.

Deeper in the field, Chase bubble driver will start Austin Cindric 12th while defending Iowa winner William Byron starts 19th.

JGR teammates Briscoe and Hamlin were struggling with brake issues in practice, and they were unable to find much pace in qualifying. Briscoe will start 20th, and Hamlin 29th. Another JGR driver will join them in the back-half of the field as Christopher Bell qualified 21st.

Ryan Preece enters this race as the first driver below the cut-line, and he will start 35th after a dismal day for the No. 60 RFK Ford.

Qualifying recap

Watch: Keselowski snaps loose, crashes in Iowa qualifying

There were lots of twitchy moments during the session, with Larson setting the benchmark among the first ten cars on track. He held the top spot until Blaney arrived. As the 18th car out, he actually picked up on his second lap and eclipsed Larson by 0.018s.

Elliott, who sustained some damage in a practice spin, was well off the pace and will start near the back of the field in 32nd.

It appeared that there was an advantage for a few of the drivers who went earlier in the session, as some surprising names remained near the top for some time.

Josh Berry nearly hit the wall on his first lap after sliding way out of the groove, but somehow managed to fight back on his second lap, climbing much higher up the grid. A handful of drivers had to abandon their second lap due to unhappy race cars.

Keselowski challenged for pole, and though he lost a bit at the very end of his lap, he still snagged third. Unfortunately, the RFK Racing co-owner lost control moments later at the start of his second lap, slamming the wall. There was significant damage to the rear of the car, and will have to go the back of the field.

Logano was the only driver to get anywhere close to the top two, tying Larson but losing the tiebreaker due to his position in the standings.

Photos from Iowa – Saturday