NASCAR Cup Series at Richmond starting lineup: Ryan Blaney wins third pole of 2022

Blaney will start first for the second week in a row

By Steven Taranto

Apr 2, 2022 at 3:23 pm ET • 1 min read

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Ryan Blaney has won the pole for the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway, posting a lap of 22.541 (119.782 MPH) in the final round of qualifying on Saturday to win his Cup Series-leading third pole of 2022. Blaney had previously qualified on the pole at Phoenix Raceway as well as last weekend at Circuit of the Americas.

The top speeds in qualifying were generally at or under 22.5, with several drivers exceeding that mark by as many as two tenths in Groups A and B of the qualifying session. However, times fell somewhat off in the final round of qualifying, allowing Blaney to set his fast lap over William Byron and then hold on for the rest of the session.

Multiple teams had issues in pre-qualifying inspection on Friday, with the two worst offenders being the Kaulig Racing No. 31 team and the NY Racing No. 44 team. Both teams failed inspection three times, meaning that drivers Justin Haley and Greg Biffle were disallowed from making a qualifying attempt and will have to serve a pass-through penalty after the start of Sunday's race.

In addition, five other drivers -- Austin Dillon, AJ Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -- had their teams fail tech inspection two times. Those teams lost pit selection and also had a crew member ejected from the weekend.