Ford dominance in qualifying at drafting tracks isn't exactly breaking news — outside of Chase Briscoe's shock pole in the Daytona 500 for Toyota (later overshadowed by inspection issues found with the mounting of the rear spoiler), Ford has earned the top spot on the grid in ten of the last 11 drafting races.
This week, Ryan Blaney earned another pole position for the Blue Oval for Sunday's Atlanta race, beating his Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric by just 0.002s. It was an impressive showing for Penske with the Penske-aligned Wood Brothers Racing team in third with Josh Berry and reigning series champion Joey Logano in fourth (and with no webbed glove this time).
But what made Saturday's qualifying session so stunning was the fact that Ford drivers earned ten of the first eleven spots on the grid. Kyle Busch was the only interloper in a Chevrolet, qualifying sixth.
With nearly every Ford running in the series at the front at Atlanta, the Blue Oval "wall" will make it fairly difficult for the Chevrolet and Toyota drivers to fight their way forward. The first stage is only 30 laps, so it will be a straight sprint for the stage points with no green-flag pitstops. The second stage is a repeat of that, allowing Ford to potentially control a good portion of the race unchallenged, collecting piles of stage points.
Sunday from Blaney's view
Blaney is set up for an ideal start to Sunday's with a sea of Fords around him, including his teammates. He told media after his pole run, "... It is reassuring when you have more Fords around you. You never know when someone is going to hang you out to dry, but that's racing. They can do what they are going to do. But it is more reassuring when you have more friendlies around you, I guess I would say, but you never know how it is going to work out.
“[Linking up] at the start, and hopefully it stays that way, but things are going to change throughout the race," explained Blaney. "It is kinda nice that, at least at the start of the race, hopefully the first stage, you can control. But it's not going to be that way the whole race, right? You are going to get shuffled at some point. Pit strategy is going to come into play so I just need to react to that. But it is nice to all start together.
While it's expected that others will find their way through the fray of Fords and challenge at some point, it will take some of the biggest names a while. The highest of the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet quartet is Alex Bowman in 13th and the top Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is Briscoe in 25th. Meanwhile, only three Ford drivers qualified worse than 11th (Rick Ware Racing's two entries and Haas Factory Team).
Ford (and more specifically Penske) came 0.003s shy of sweeping the Atlanta races last year with Blaney losing out in the closest three-wide finish in history while Logano went on to win in the fall. Should the Ford drivers manage to stick together on Sunday, it would be foolish to bet against them.
