Michael McDowell will start from the pole position in the NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 this Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway as he won his second pole of the season by turning a lap of 182.022 mph. This is an important accomplishment for McDowell, driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford, and a strong follow-up to his previous pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Ford dominates the front row of NASCAR qualifiers
This is the third time this season that a Ford driver has led the field at a drafting-style race. Qualifying second is another Ford driver, Austin Cindric, who will line up alongside McDowell on the front row. In third place was Todd Gilliland, McDowell’s teammate at Front Row Motorsports.
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McDowell’s thoughts on pole position
During a post-qualifying interview conducted by Fox Sports, McDowell shared how thrilled he was to be leading the field.
“I’m just so proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports, you know,” McDowell said. “This is a full team effort. We come down here to Superspeedways, we got front row at Daytona and then got the pole at Atlanta, and we just got that taste of it, like ‘Hey, we can do this.’
“We’ve had a lot of speed. I think we’ll be able to go out there tomorrow, score stage points, and just build some momentum going into the summer. Winning a race fixes everything, so the goal is to win a race.”
Chevrolet and Toyota in the Top 10
Chevrolet’s Kyle Busch qualified in fourth place, whereas his teammate Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing took fifth place. Martin Truex Jr. posted the best result among Toyota drivers as he qualified in sixth.
On another note, three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen, in his debut Cup start at Talladega, qualified 17th.
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Kyle Larson to start at the back
One notable absence from the top qualifiers was Kyle Larson, who didn’t get to take a lap during Saturday’s qualifying session. His No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was disqualified from qualifying by NASCAR because of unapproved adjustments to the roof rails. Further penalties will be announced later in the week for Larson, who will start the race from the rear of the field on Sunday.
With a strong Ford presence at the front of the grid and a mix of Chevrolet and Toyota drivers in the top spots, the GEICO 500 race is set to start this Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
Talladega Superspeedway Starting Lineup
- #34 — Michael McDowell
- #2 — Austin Cindric
- #38 — Todd Gilliland
- #8 — Kyle Busch
- #3 — Austin Dillon
- #19 — Martin Truex Jr.
- #22 — Joey Logano
- #17 — Chris Buescher
- #9 — Chase Elliott
- #20 — Christopher Bell
- #41 — Ryan Preece
- #48 — Alex Bowman
- #24 — William Byron
- #23 — Bubba Wallace
- #54 — Ty Gibbs
- #21 — Harrison Burton
- #16 — Shane van Gisbergen
- #45 — Tyler Reddick
- #31 — Daniel Hemric
- #42 — John Hunter Nemechek
- #12 — Ryan Blaney
- #6 — Brad Keselowski
- #11 — Denny Hamlin
- #62 — Anthony Alfredo
- #99 — Daniel Suarez
- #14 — Chase Briscoe
- #51 — Justin Haley
- #43 — Erik Jones
- #4 — Josh Berry
- #71 — Zane Smith
- #7 — Corey LaJoie
- #1 — Ross Chastain
- #47 — Ricky Stenhouse
- #15 — Cody Ware
- #77 — Carson Hocevar
- #10 — Noah Gragson
- #78 — BJ McLeod
- #5 — Kyle Larson
