Blaney edged van Gisbergen by just 0.033s to score his 12th career pole position and his first at The Glen.
The #12 Ford Mustang driver said that while he was proud of the effort, he admitted converting it into a win would be challenging.
“Ninety laps is going to be a little harder to beat him tomorrow, but gotta start somewhere,” said Blaney.
“It’s more neat for me because we had an absolutely abysmal weekend here last year.
“We’ve worked really hard on where we need to get better here, where I need to do a better job. How can we improve our race cars. So it was like a big dual effort.
“Just proud of their dedication to get better at this place and improving the car from last year and I tried to work on a lot of things.
“I consider myself a pretty average road course racer and I’ve worked really hard on trying to get better, where can I improve my driving skills and styles and compete a little bit more at these places and it’s neat when that all comes together.
“I try to take these things one day at a time. Tomorrow is a whole different task but it’s nice to have done our job really well today and now about focusing on trying to make 90 good laps tomorrow.’’
Joe GIbbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe continued his hot run of form int he #19 Toyota Camry with third in qualifying.
Van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain will line up fourth in the #1 Chevrolet Camaro.
Daniel Suarez in the #99 will line up 19th while Connor Zilisch will roll off 25th in the #87 car.
Last year’s race winner Chris Buescher in the #17 RFK Racing Mustang will start 12th.
Results: NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen Qualifying, Watkins Glen
| Pos | Num | Driver | Sponsor | Lap | Diff | Gap |
| 1 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford | 71.96 | ||
| 2 | 88 | Shane Van Gisbergen # | WeatherTech Chevrolet | 71.993 | 0.033 | 0.033 |
| 3 | 19 | Chase Briscoe | Bass Pro Shops Toyota | 71.997 | 0.037 | 0.004 |
| 4 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Busch Light Chevrolet | 72.081 | 0.121 | 0.084 |
| 5 | 8 | Kyle Busch | zone/Fastrac Chevrolet | 72.144 | 0.184 | 0.063 |
| 6 | 71 | Michael McDowell | Go Bowling Chevrolet | 72.180 | 0.220 | 0.036 |
| 7 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Chevrolet | 72.199 | 0.239 | 0.019 |
| 8 | 77 | Carson Hocevar | Delaware Life Chevrolet | 72.200 | 0.24000 | 0.001 |
| 9 | 20 | Christopher Bell | DEWALT Toyota | 72.21 | 0.250 | 0.01 |
| 10 | 24 | William Byron | Raptor Chevrolet | 72.215 | 0.255 | 0.005 |
| 11 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 72.235 | 0.275 | 0.02 |
| 12 | 17 | Chris Buescher | BuildSubmarines.com Ford | 72.265 | 0.305 | 0.03 |
| 13 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Snap on Ford | 72.300 | 0.340 | 0.035 |
| 14 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Monster Energy Toyota | 72.304 | 0.344 | 0.004 |
| 15 | 23 | * Bubba Wallace | McDonald’s Toyota | 72.412 | 0.452 | 0.108 |
| 16 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Nexlizet Ford | 72.427 | 0.467 | 0.015 |
| 17 | 60 | Ryan Preece | Mohawk Northeast Inc. Ford | 72.443 | 0.483 | 0.016 |
| 18 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet | 72.451 | 0.491 | 0.008 |
| 19 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Freeway Insurance Chevrolet | 72.461 | 0.501 | 0.01 |
| 20 | 9 | Chase Elliott | NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet | 72.465 | 0.505 | 0.004 |
| 21 | 45 | * Tyler Reddick | The Beast Toyota | 72.487 | 0.527 | 0.022 |
| 22 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Progressive Toyota | 72.507 | 0.547 | 0.02 |
| 23 | 7 | Justin Haley | Gainbridge Chevrolet | 72.552 | 0.592 | 0.045 |
| 24 | 21 | Josh Berry | Freightliner Ford | 72.576 | 0.616 | 0.024 |
| 25 | 87 | * Connor Zilisch(i) | Red Bull Chevrolet | 72.603 | 0.643 | 0.027 |
| 26 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Breztri Chevrolet | 72.667 | 0.707 | 0.064 |
| 27 | 34 | * Todd Gilliland | Overplay Ford | 72.718 | 0.758 | 0.051 |
| 28 | 5 | Kyle Larson | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 72.718 | 0.758 | 0.000 |
| 29 | 35 | * Riley Herbst # | Monster Energy Zero Sugar Toyota | 72.736 | 0.776 | 0.018 |
| 30 | 43 | Erik Jones | Family Dollar Toyota | 72.764 | 0.804 | 0.028 |
| 31 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | Mobil 1 Toyota | 72.838 | 0.878 | 0.074 |
| 32 | 41 | Cole Custer | HaasTooling.com Ford | 72.923 | 0.963 | 0.085 |
| 33 | 10 | Ty Dillon | Sea Best Chevrolet | 72.989 | 1.029 | 0.066 |
| 34 | 38 | * Zane Smith | Long John Silver’s Ford | 73.153 | 1.193 | 0.164 |
| 35 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Real American Beer Chevrolet | 73.170 | 1.210 | 0.017 |
| 36 | 4 | * Noah Gragson | A&W Root Beer Ford | 73.190 | 1.230 | 0.020 |
| 37 | 51 | Cody Ware | Evel Knievel Museum Ford | 73.698 | 1.738 | 0.508 |
| 38 | 78 | * Katherine Legge | Desnuda Chevrolet | 74.504 | 2.544 | 0.806 |
| 39 | 44 | * JJ Yeley(i) | Syracuse Football NIL Chevrolet | 74.955 | 2.995 | 0.451 |
| 40 | 66 | * Josh Bilicki(i) | Southern Tier Security Ford | 75.092 | 3.132 | 0.137 |
For more of the latest NASCAR news stories, visit MotorRacing.com
Discussion about this post