NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney. Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Ryan Blaney wins pole for Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Feb 22, 2025 12:39 PM ET

With a lap of 30.908 seconds, Ryan Blaney won the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Blaney beat Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric to earn the 11th pole of his NASCAR Cup Series career.

"Really cool effort by the No. 12 group," Blaney told Amazon Prime. "I think we got the No. 2 by two one-thousandths of a second. I think it shows that there's speed in in all the Penske cars."

Feeling peachy keen for Sunday!@Blaney wins the #BuschLightPole at Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/X2qHSg3paC
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 22, 2025

Ford dominated Saturday's qualifying session, taking up 10 of the top 11 spots on the grid for Sunday's race. The No. 8 of Kyle Busch was the only non-Ford to make the final round of qualifying.

Cindric, Josh Berry, Joey Logano, Todd Gilliland, Busch, Zane Smith, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski and Noah Gragson make up the rest of the top-10.

Other notable qualifying efforts include Bubba Wallace in 14th, William Byron in 16th, Kyle Larson in 17th, Chase Elliott in 19th and Chase Briscoe in 25th.

Joe Gibbs Racing struggled on Saturday, with Briscoe's 25th-place run being the quickest lap by a JGR car. Christopher Bell, (32nd) Ty Gibbs (36th) and Denny Hamlin (37th) will have plenty of work to do to get to the front on Sunday.

The Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway will go green shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, with coverage on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Pre-race coverage on both FOX and PRN will begin at 2 p.m. ET.

Daniel Suarez is the defending winner of the Ambetter Health 400, while Joey Logano won the last race at Atlanta in September of 2024.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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