ATLANTA -- Aric Almirola won the pole for the Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway during qualifying on Saturday evening, laying down a lap of 31.261 (177.346 mph) in the final round to win his first pole of the 2023 season and the fifth of his Cup career. After winning just two poles during his first nine full-time seasons, Almirola has now won at least one pole in each of the last three seasons.

Almirola headlined a strong qualifying performance for Ford, who carried over the strength they showed in Atlanta's spring race despite July's midsummer conditions making for a jarring difference from unseasonably cold weather in March. Eight of the 10 cars to make the final round of qualifying were Fords, with Ty Gibbs' Toyota and Kyle Larson's Chevrolet the lone representatives of their respective manufacturers.

Larson was an exception to what was otherwise a difficult session for Chevrolet, as a number of notable Chevy drivers -- including Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman -- had qualifying runs well outside the top 20. The Toyotas were hardly spared either: Christopher Bell got loose in Turn 2 on his qualifying lap, while Bubba Wallace had to abort his qualifying lap and did not post a time after discovering what was believed to be a mechanical issue that compromised the handling of his car.

One of the standouts of qualifying was Harrison Burton, who timed in fifth fastest to earn his best-ever starting spot for a Cup Series race. Also of note was Todd Gilliland, who tied his career-best qualifying result in ninth.

Quaker State 400 starting lineup

  1. #10 - Aric Almirola
  2. #12 - Ryan Blaney
  3. #14 - Chase Briscoe
  4. #22 - Joey Logano
  5. #21 - Harrison Burton
  6. #4 - Kevin Harvick
  7. #54 - Ty Gibbs (R)
  8. #5 - Kyle Larson
  9. #38 - Todd Gilliland
  10. #2 - Austin Cindric
  11. #6 - Brad Keselowski
  12. #45 - Tyler Reddick
  13. #41 - Ryan Preece
  14. #11 - Denny Hamlin
  15. #17 - Chris Buescher
  16. #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
  17. #31 - Justin Haley
  18. #24 - William Byron
  19. #16 - AJ Allmendinger
  20. #34 - Michael McDowell
  21. #51 - Cole Custer
  22. #8 - Kyle Busch
  23. #9 - Chase Elliott
  24. #15 - J.J. Yeley
  25. #43 - Erik Jones
  26. #99 - Daniel Suarez
  27. #77 - Ty Dillon
  28. #7 - Corey LaJoie
  29. #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  30. #1 - Ross Chastain
  31. #42 - Noah Gragson (R)
  32. #62 - Austin Hill
  33. #3 - Austin Dillon
  34. #20 - Christopher Bell
  35. #78 - B.J. McLeod
  36. #48 - Alex Bowman
  37. #23 - Bubba Wallace
Add CBS Sports on Google