NASCAR at Phoenix: Blaney on Pole, Larson to Start 22nd

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- The battle for the NASCAR Cup Series championship got a little closer during qualifying for Sunday's race at Phoenix Raceway.

Team Penske's Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano will start first and second, while Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell will start third through fifth. Those five are the direct championship competitors to Kyle Larson, who will start 22nd.

Entering Sunday, Larson leads Denny Hamlin by 49 points, Christopher Bell by 51, Chase Briscoe by 65, Ryan Blaney by 85 and Joey Logano by 92. As they will run when they start Sunday's race, Larson's lead over Blaney, for instance, would be down to 25 points. 

Chase drivers swept the top-seven starting spots with Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs starting behind Blaney, Logano, Briscoe, Hamlin and Bell.

Larson is in a tough spot starting 22nd with a short, 60-lap first stage. The first stage has gone caution-free at Phoenix in five of the nine NextGen race, including the last two. In the last eight, the latest a caution has fallen in the first stage -- when it has fallen -- is lap 11, after five of the first 10 laps were under caution in spring of 2025. 

Chase driver William Byron rounded out the top-10, just behind non-Chase drivers Michael McDowell and Josh Berry who will start eighth and ninth, respectively.

Trackhouse Racing had a solid showing in qualifying, clocking in 11th and 12th with Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch. Front Row Motorsports' Todd Gilliland clocked in ahead of Chase drivers Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher who will start 14th through 17th. 

Rounding out the rest of the Chase drivers are Ryan Preece and Carson Hocevar. They will start 26th and 28th, respectively.

Hocevar's poor qualifying effort contrasts his second-place effort to Blaney on the overall speed chart and to Bell on the 10-lap average in practice. Blaney ran a lap of 26.969 seconds on the 33rd lap of practice, while Bell clocked in his best average from laps 26 to 35. 

Blaney had the third-best 10-lap average from laps 32 to 41. 

Among the championship drivers, Logano has slightly above average speed, clocking in third overall (27.015) and fifth on the 10-lap average (laps 1 to 10). 

Larson's speed is questionable, judging by the charts. He was 13th-fastest overall (27.212) and 12th on the 10-lap average (laps 33 to 42).

With a 60-lap first stage and starting 22nd, Larson could miss out on a valuable opportunity to not lose points. While he doesn't need to win Sunday, he is up against the odds of doing it: Only three times in 60 NASCAR Cup Series races at Phoenix Raceway has a winner started 22nd or worse:

- Ricky Rudd in October 1995 (29th)

- Matt Kenseth in November 2002 (28th)

- Ryan Newman in March 2017 (22nd)

The NASCAR Cup Series field of 37 will get the green flag Sunday just after 3 p.m. ET on USA Sports, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and MRN affiliates.