Ryan Blaney is set to lead the field to green at Watkins Glen International on Sunday. His first-place start is Team Penske's 150th pole position in NASCAR Cup Series history, joining Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Petty Enterprises.With a 71.960-second lap time, Blaney was the fastest driver in the qualifying session ahead of Shane van Gisbergen, who has won three of the first four road courses of the 2025 season. Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Austin Cindric will start in 11th and 13th, respectively.NASCAR posted on X that Ryan Blaney secured a landmark achievement for the Ford-affiliated team at Watkins Glen.“150 (Busch Light Pole) Awards for (Team Penske). The organization joins (Hendrick Motorsports), (Joe Gibbs Racing), and Petty Enterprises as just the fourth team in Cup Series history to reach that milestone,” NASCAR wrote.The pole position at the 2.45-mile road course track is Blaney's second of the year (first was at Atlanta Motor Speedway). It's the 15th of his career and second ever on a road course. The #12 Team Penske driver has also scored one win (Nashville Superspeedway), eight top-fives, and 11 top-10s this season. However, he has recorded seven DNFs—the most alongside Cody Ware after 23 races.The Go Bowling at The Glen will commence on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET. Blaney hasn't won at the New York-based road course yet. His best result was a fifth-place finish in 2019.Ryan Blaney driving the #12 Ford Mustang at Watkins Glen International - Source: ImagnChase Briscoe will be starting in third, followed by Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch, respectively. Completing the top 10 starting grid are Michael McDowell, Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar, Christopher Bell, and William Byron.“A little harder to beat him tomorrow”: Ryan Blaney on battling Shane van Gisbergen for the win at Watkins GlenRyan Blaney touched on his upcoming fight with Shane van Gisbergen, who is among the favorites to win the Go Bowling at The Glen. He acknowledged that beating SVG would be difficult, but believes he and the #12 Team Penske have improved from last year.The 2023 Cup Series champion said (via NASCAR):“Ninety laps is going to be a little harder to beat him tomorrow, but gotta start somewhere. It’s more neat for me because we had an absolutely abysmal weekend here last year.”He added:“We’ve worked really hard on where we need to get better here, where I need to do a better job, how can we improve our race cars. So it was like a big dual effort. Just proud of their dedication to get better at this place and improving the car from last year, and I tried to work on a lot of things. I consider myself a pretty average road course racer and I’ve worked really hard on trying to get better.”Last year, Ryan Blaney started 30th at Watkins Glen International. He was involved in a first-lap multi-car wreck, forcing NASCAR to tow his #12 Ford back to the pits. That meant the end of his race under the previous rules of the DVP (Damaged Vehicle Policy).