WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) — Ryan Blaney bested Shane van Gisbergen in Cup Series road course qualifying by three hundredths of a second on Saturday, capturing the pole position at Watkins Glen International.
Blaney turned a lap of 1 minute, 11.960 seconds in the No. 12 Ford, edging van Gisbergen’s No. 88 Chevrolet (1 minute, 11.993 seconds).
Starting first in Sunday’s 110-lap race at Watkins Glen was a surprise for Blaney, who has only three top 10 finishes on the 2.45-mile track. The 2023 Cup champion is mired in a 22-race slump without a top-five finish on a road course.
“What a cool pole,” said Blaney, who earned the 150th Cup pole position for Team Penske. “I’m a pretty average road racer, and I work really hard to get better at it and try to figure out ways to be better. We’ve got to find a little bit of race pace, but it’s nice to have one-lap speed. It’s fun when you can sit on the pole at a place where I’m not very good.”
Bidding for his fourth consecutive Cup victory on a road or street course, van Gisbergen will start second after having won from the pole at Mexico City, Chicago and Sonoma.
“Man, it’s amazing how close it all is for a road course,” van Gisbergen said. "My laps were OK, and there probably were some things I could have fixed. Decent start for tomorrow."
Chase Briscoe, who had started on the pole position the past two weeks at Iowa Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, qualified third in the No. 19 Toyota, followed by Ross Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet and Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet.
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Driver Ryan Blaney, left, gives autographs before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Bryon Houlgrave)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — One person died, two people were missing and 16 others were rescued from the waters off San Francisco after a pontoon boat carrying 19 people sank Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen reported the toll and said crews that arrived on the scene near Alcatraz Island found a three-deck pontoon vessel almost fully under water, with the motor still running and leaking fuel.
The waters around Alcatraz Island, once a federal prison and now a tourist destination, attract sailboats and other recreational vessels. It lies in San Francisco Bay about a mile (about 1.6 kilometers) north of the city's shoreline.
The boating mishap was initially reported as a fire, “but we now don’t have any evidence of that,” Crispen said.
Some of the people were injured from falling into the water, but there were no reports of burns, he said. The person who died was alive when plucked from the frigid waters by rescue crews but later died. A dog onboard also died.
Crews continued to search the water for the two missing with divers, helicopters and 11 vessels, Crispen said.
“Right now we are in full rescue mode,” he added.
All those rescued were taken to Gashouse Cove Marina, a small craft harbor in San Francisco. Three people with injuries from falling from the boat were taken to the hospital, Crispen said.
Fire Lt. Mariano Elias said the vessel, described as a “pontoon pleasure boat,” was about 600 yards (about 550 meters) from Alcatraz and the emergency call came in just after 3:30 p.m.
Crispen said the vessel was believed to have launched near the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. A person who answered the phone there said the club did not have any information on what happened.
Video images from a local Fox station showed a Fire Department boat deployed to rescue people who had been on the vessel, which was largely submerged with objects floating nearby.
Live video from the scene showed a man and a woman wrapped in blankets and sitting on a curb before walking to a nearby ambulance. A yellow tarp covered a body on the dock.
The Coast Guard and Oakland police also helped in the rescue, Elias said.
A U.S. Coast Guard crew goes past Alcatraz Island near the site of a pontoon boat accident on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
A body is covered with a tarp on a dock near the site of boat accident on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
A body is covered with a tarp on a dock near the site of boat accident on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Emergency crews gather at a dock near the site of a pontoon boat fire on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Emergency crews stage near the site of a pontoon boat fire on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
An Oakland Police boat is docked near the site of a pontoon boat fire on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
A U.S. Coast Guard crew patrols near the site of a pontoon boat fire on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Emergency crews gather at a dock near the site of a pontoon boat fire on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
