Naturally, it took hiring the NASCAR Cup Series pole leader from last season for Spire Motorsports to finally score its first pole position as an organization.
But the irony is that all of the poles scored by Michael McDowell have come either on superspeedways or a flat track and never an intermediate like the one that came on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
When Spire hired McDowell, they did so knowing that he had two excellent skill sets in both superspeedways and road courses but also was more than reliable on every track type and Saturday validated everyone buying into the program.
“I think I talked about it a little bit last week but this will be the test because Vegas and places like this, they challenge everything,” McDowell said. “Aerodynamics, engine, set-up, you have to hit everything just right to be fast here.
“So this was kind of that unknown coming into it in wondering if we would have the speed we’ve shown at other places. Obviously, we do so just really proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports. We’re building something and we known that and that is the kind of mindset that we have.
“This is just one of the next steps that will get us to the next step that leads to the next step.”
McDowell leads teammates Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley in the championship standings — 15th to 18th and 30th and has been incredibly consistent in just running around and near the top-10 in the early going.
And how he won the pole on Saturday was reflective of why he was hired in the first place.
“This is where being a student and studying matters,” McDowell said. “You know, Christopher Bell last year in Round 2 was able to keep it a little bit lower off Turn 4 and that’s how he got the pole. I went through 1 and 2 and had a lot of grip and felt like I didn’t use a lot of it and knew I had an opportunity to potentially do that without scrubbing speed and without putting myself in a bad spot.
“That’s a chance you take, right? But my car had a lot of speed, a lot of grip, and just watching what CBell did last year, I felt that was the right move to make.”
And yes, McDowell was aware of the irony in where he hasn’t won a pole yet.
“One of the funny things that my crew chief Travis Peterson said, ‘hey, we got a pole at Gateway and got a lot of poles at super speedways and now we got a pole at a mile and half …’ The only place I haven’t got a pole is a road course, which that’s supposed to be my thing, you know?
“Hopefully this will be the year, right, that we can get a road course pole as well and close out all track types. Poles are fun and today has been great and we’re all going to go to the hotel and be excited and pumped up but wins are what matters right?
“Tomorrow is what matters and it’s a much tougher challenge to go win that race tomorrow but that’s the goal. I think we’ll have a race car to contend.”
Challenging Bell
Everyone generally has respect for what Christopher Bell, Adam Stevens and the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 team have accomplished over the past three weeks but they also want to be the ones to put a stop to it.
For example, Kyle Larson is the most recent driver not named Bell to have won three in a row and his Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 team did it twice during the 2021 season. Larson knows what it means to reach that level and admires it but is also reaching a different feeling on the matter.
“So, I think having lived through it on my own, I can respect it a lot more and it doesn’t bother me,” Larson said. “You know, when I see somebody else having success like that. So, if he wins this weekend, maybe it’s like — all right, this is getting annoying.
“But I think for me, as like a competitor and a fan, I think it’s really neat because this sport is so tough, especially in the NextGen era. So, I respect it more than anything currently. But if it keeps going on too long, it’ll get annoying.”
Ryan Blaney is started, respectfully, to get annoyed.
“That group has been doing a great job for sure and has a great chance this weekend,” Blaney said. “They’re really good here and will be one of the ones to beat. We respect that level of performance but at the same time, we have to stop this and get those guys off their high horse.
“At the same time, you can’t overlook how hard that is to do. They have put themselves in a great spot the past three weeks to win and dominated at Phoenix. Kind of the same way at COTA. It’s hard to beat that, they’re a good group and have shown that.”
Tyler Reddick says Bell and Stevens have done a good job putting full races together.
“We haven’t done a great job of unloading exactly where we need to be and have to make a lot of adjustments throughout the race to get there,” Reddick said. “That’s the key. If you stay up front all race, you’re going to score a lot of points and have a high chance for success.”
How does William Byron plan to stop it?
“Just continue to bring the speed that we have, right,” Byron said. “That’s all you can do. It’s easy for everyone (in the media) to talk about the outside but for us, we just focus on our team and what we can do better. We were not quite as good as we could have been last week but still in the mix on this week, we should be good again and just need to put a full weekend together.
“Those guys have been on an incredible streak and I’m sure they’ll have another great race too.”
Joey Logano wondered on his SiriusXM NASCAR show if fans will turn on Bell soon.
“And you know, here’s the thing I’m starting to wonder — you win three races in a row, where’s the boos,” he asked. “When do the boos come, right? Everyone hates a winner. When’s it gonna happen? Because he’s never really given anyone a reason to hate him up to this point. Now he’s won too much. So you’re gonna get booed now. I would think. Maybe.”
Bell’s teammate, Denny Hamlin, respects it because he’s never won three in a row.
“I can’t recall if I was ever close in the third race that I was contending for,” Hamlin said. “It’s really, really hard, especially under all the circumstances. When you have things going your way, it seems like the basket is 10 feet wide right now for them.”
Blaney troubles
Ryan Blaney suffered a right rear tire failure and backed his rear end into the wall in Turn 2.
The team is not going to a back-up and feels the car can be salvaged. Specifically, they replaced the rear bumper and diffuser, the most important downforce components of the car.
“It ran 18, 20 laps or something like that, so I thought it was no problem,” Blaney said. “So yeah, I don’t know. We’ll have to look at the tire and see.
“I hate blowing tires.”
Crew chief Jonathan Hassler took a degree of responsibility for what happened after speaking to Goodyear officials.
“Unfortunate it happened, but happy it happened in practice and not the race,” Hassler told the Performance Racing Network. “I think some of our setup parameters didn’t help, but we’ll be fine on Sunday.”
Blaney feels Hassler and his team are up to the challenge.
“They respond well. It’s something I’m really proud of them responding well from adversity or unfortunate things happening,” Blaney said. “So I’m sure we’ll bounce back from it like we always do.”
Starting lineup
- Michael McDowell
- Joey Logano
- Austin Cindric
- Kyle Busch
- Erik Jones
- Alex Bowman
- Josh Berry
- William Byron
- Zane Smith
- Kyle Larson
- Chris Buescher
- Ryan Preece
- Christopher Bell
- Tyler Reddick
- Denny Hamlin
- Chase Elliott
- Ty Dillon
- AJ Allmendinger
- Ross Chastain
- Bubba Wallace
- Noah Gragson
- Austin Dillon
- Daniel Suarez
- Chase Briscoe
- Carson Hocevar
- Cole Custer
- Brad Keselowski
- Shane Van Gisbergen
- Ty Gibbs
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
- Todd Gilliland
- Justin Haley
- Riley Herbst
- Cody Ware
- Ryan Blaney
