Ryan Blaney will lead the Cup Series field to the green flag for Sunday's race at Watkins Glen International after winning the pole in qualifying.
The Team Penske driver completed his lap at 71.960 seconds. This marked his 12th pole as a Cup Series driver and his second of the season. This also marks Blaney's first time since Circuit of the Americas in 2022 that he will start from the front of the pack for a road course race.
MORE: Ryan Blaney wins pole, full Watkins Glen lineup
"What a cool pole," said Blaney, who has one road course win in his Cup career. "I wouldn't say I am... I'm a pretty average road racer, honestly, and I work really hard to try to get better at it and try to figure out ways to be better.
"Really proud of the whole 12 group... A fun day getting better and hopefully, we got... we got to find a little bit of race pace tomorrow, I thought, but it's nice to have one-lap speed."
It's @Blaney to the top of the board! pic.twitter.com/1T8midmnXP
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 9, 2025
Shane van Gisbergen, the winner of three consecutive Cup Series road course races, qualified second with a lap of 71.993 seconds. This is his fourth time starting on the front row for a road course race. He previously won the pole for Mexico City, Chicago, and Sonoma.
Van Gisbergen had the second-fastest lap in a top 10 that also included Chase Briscoe (71.997), Ross Chastain (72.081), Kyle Busch (72.144), Michael McDowell (72.180), Alex Bowman (72.199), Carson Hocevar (72.200), Christopher Bell (72.210), and William Byron (72.215).
Chris Buescher, the defending winner at Watkins Glen, just missed the top 10. He qualified 12th with a lap of 72.265 seconds.
Connor Zilisch, who had triple duty on his schedule for this weekend at Watkins Glen, qualified 25th with a lap of 72.603 seconds. However, he will not compete in Sunday's race after breaking his collarbone in a post-race fall on Saturday.
Kyle Larson, a two-time winner at Watkins Glen, did not have the expected pace during qualifying. His best lap was 72.718 seconds, which placed him 27th in the starting lineup. Fellow two-time Watkins Glen winner Chase Elliott qualified 20th with a lap of 72.465 seconds.
The Cup Series field will take on Watkins Glen on Sunday, Aug. 10, at 2 p.m. ET. USA Network will provide coverage for the race, which has a green flag time of 2:05 p.m. ET.