Blaney had the fastest time of the day, setting a lap of 35.447 seconds (203.12 mph) in the second round, but faded all the way to 12th in the final round after a wiggle in the center of Turns 1 and 2 cost him momentum on his attempt to claim the pole.
“About backing it into the fence into Turn 1 (was the difference),” Blaney admitted. “I just got loose over there. (When) you lose time in one corner here, you can’t make it up.”
“I’m proud of the first two rounds. We didn’t tighten up for the last round. We have good speed in our car. Hopefully we should be able to drive up through everybody in the race.”
Martin Truex Jr. was the first driver who failed to advance out of round two, posting a time of 35.774 (201.263 mph) in his No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota.
Truex will start 13th Sunday in pursuit of his fifth win of the season.
“We were real tight in Turn 1 on that lap there,” Truex explained. “I just got in there a little too deep and never quite could get it to the bottom. We lost quite a bit of time there. Definitely should have made the third round; I just thought we were going to be okay and then a couple guys went there at the end and knocked us out. We should have gone out again and we just didn’t – ran out of time.”
Other notables knocked out in the second round included rookie Daniel Suarez (16th), Danica Patrick (18th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (19th), Jimmie Johnson (22nd) and Brickyard 400 winner Kasey Kahne (23rd).
Ryan Newman was the first driver knocked out from the opening round of qualifying, earning the 25th starting spot in the No. 31 Velveeta Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.
Newman’s lap of 36.408 seconds (197.759 mph) was one that the driver said he and his team need to improve on as they approach the playoffs.
“The car got really tight in (Turns) 3 and 4,” explained Newman. “We’re just off a little bit on speed … but I just didn’t get 3 and 4 quite right and missed it by a little bit. We definitely shouldn’t be back here, in a position where we’re just trying to make the top 24. We’ve got some work to do with the Velveeta Shells and Cheese Chevrolet and two more practices tomorrow to work it out.”
AJ Allmendinger (29th), Paul Menard (30th) and Ty Dillon (33rd) were also among those eliminated in round one of qualifying.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams return to action at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning for their next round of practice ahead of the Pure Michigan 400.
Full qualifying results can be viewed on the next page…
