NASCAR: Aric Almirola Takes Quaker State 400 Pole at Atlanta - Full Qualifying Results

The second Cup race at Atlanta is shaping up to be a repeat of the first back in March. Ford once again dominated qualifying, taking nine of the top 11 positions, including pole position. That honor went to Aric Almirola, who led a strong Stewart Haas Racing contingent on Saturday. It is the fifth career pole for Almirola; his second at Atlanta and his first of the season. Ryan Blaney will start alongside him on the front row, as the Team Penske driver came up just 0.014 seconds shy of snatching the top spot.

Almirola is trying to become the third straight driver to win the Atlanta race from pole position. "I thought the car drove decent the first round, but it looked like a lot of guys were having a hard time. My Ford Mustang drove really good. We've been working so hard to get our cars where they need to be. Thank you to Doug Yates and everybody at Roush-Yates engine shop. You need a lot of horsepower when you come to a place where you run wide open. We're gonna lead the field to the green, but hopefully we can finish there on Sunday."

Row 2 is also a SHR/Penske duo, featuring Chase Briscoe and defending race winner Joey Logano. The same can be said for Row 3, which has Harrison Burton (Wood Brothers Racing / Penske) and Kevin Harvick. This will be the 36th and final start at Atlanta for Harvick, who famously got his first Cup win here in 2001 with Richard Childress Racing after taking over the ride following Dale Earnhardt's death. Harvick is a three-time Atlanta winner and his 1,360 laps led are far-and-away the most among active drivers.

Ty Gibbs and Kyle Larson will start from Row 4 tomorrow, leading the way for Toyota and Chevrolet. Larson is the only Chevrolet driver that qualified inside the top 16. Todd Gilliland and Austin Cindric rounded out the top-ten in qualifying. Brad Keselowski just missed out on the final round and will start 11th tomorrow. Tyler Reddick starts beside him in 12th, and was able to put together a good lap after his teammate Bubba Wallace had to abort his qualifying attempt after nearly crashing.

Wallace was certainly not the only driver with his hands full on Saturday. Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman also had close calls that killed their one-lap run in qualifying. After winning the last two races, Trackhouse Racing struggled today in qualifying as Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain start 26th and 30th tomorrow. Kyle Busch (22nd) and Chase Elliott (23rd) will also have some work to do in order to get to the front in the race.

Previous Atlanta winners

2023: Joey Logano

2022: Chase Elliott

2022: William Byron

2021: Kurt Busch

2021: Ryan Blaney

2020: Kevin Harvick

2019: Brad Keselowski

2018: Kevin Harvick

2017: Brad Keselowski

2016: Jimmie Johnson

2015: Jimmie Johnson

2014: Kasey Kahne

2013: Kyle Busch

2012: Denny Hamlin

2011: Jeff Gordon

2010: Tony Stewart