NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying Report - Atlanta

June 27, 2025

Quaker State 400
Hampton, Georgia - June 27, 2025

Joey Logano, driver, No. 22  Autotrader Ford Mustang Dark Horse - 1st

Ryan Blaney, driver, No. 12  Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse - 3rd

Austin Cindric, driver, No. 2  Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang Dark Horse - 4th

THE PEACH STATE: NASCAR Cup Series drivers took to the newly renamed EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta on Friday to qualify for Saturday night's Quaker State 400. Joey Logano claimed the pole, the 32nd of his Cup Series career and the sixth consecutive pole for Ford Performance in Atlanta. Team Penske has a solid history at Atlanta, with eight Cup Series victories at the 1.5-mile oval, including last year's Quaker State 400 win by Logano. Logano, a two-time Atlanta winner, will also celebrate a milestone start this weekend, becoming just the second driver to make 450 Cup Series starts with Team Penske, joining Rusty Wallace on that list. Ryan Blaney enters the weekend riding a six-race top-10 streak at Atlanta, the longest active streak at the track and the longest of his career at any venue. Since 2023, Team Penske has led 1,060 laps on drafting tracks, more than three times that of any other organization, and with Austin Cindric's win at Talladega earlier this year, the team has now won at least one drafting-track race in 12 consecutive seasons (2014-2025). With the starting lineup now set, the Penske trio will look to carry that momentum into Saturday night's race and deliver another triumph for the organization.

LOGANO SAID IT: "Being up front and controlling this race is the name of the game. If you can get up there and solidify the top positions, I feel like you can stay there. The thing is there's a lot of what-ifs that play out in this race, a lot of cautions that maybe timed in a different way where it can jumble up the field. It's hard to say you're gonna be leading every lap of this thing. It's kind of a hard thing to try to accomplish. The good thing is we controlled what we could today. I'm super proud of Team Penske, Roush Yates, Ford, obviously, to keep our Mustangs up there. It really shows the ability to repeat from car to car. It's really hard to do. When you see we tied with the 21 and I think all the other cars were all within a couple hundredths of a second, and you think of all the parts and pieces on a race car and how you can put them together, to make them all end up the same like that is pretty impressive. I'm super proud of what Team Penske has been able to do there. It shows the discipline and quality control is definitely there, so I'm proud to see that. That part is cool to show as an example today, but tomorrow is a whole new day."

IN-SEASON CHALLENGE: The new In-Season Challenge officially begins this weekend at Atlanta, marking the first of five races in NASCAR's new midseason bracket-style competition that coincides with TNT's portion of the broadcast schedule. The top 32 full-time drivers in points following Nashville were seeded into the bracket based on their finishes across the previous three races, Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono. Over the next five events, drivers will advance through head-to-head matchups, with the final showdown set for Indianapolis. The highest-finishing driver in that finale will claim a $1 million prize.

Matchups for Challenge Round 1 at Atlanta
Ryan Blaney (7 seed) vs. Carson Hocevar (26 seed)
Austin Cindric (19 seed) vs. Zane Smith (14 seed)
Joey Logano (25 seed) vs. Alex Bowman (8 seed)

UNDER THE LIGHTS: Catch the Quaker State 400 under the lights from Atlanta live at 7 p.m. ET Saturday on TNT, with radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).