Ryan Blaney, the recent Cup champion who came within 0.003 seconds of Daniel Suárez, won the pole position to lead the field to green. Ford drivers own nine of the first 10 starting positions in Sunday’s race — including all four members of the Team Penske/Wood Brothers Racing alliance on the front two rows.

Unlike the Daytona 500, Atlanta and the other NASCAR Cup Series races set qualifying during qualifying time trials.