Make It Five Straight Superspeedway Poles For McDowell

Michael McDowell with the Busch Light Pole Award at Talladega Superspeedway. (HHP/David Graham photo)

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Since the season-opening Daytona 500, no one has been better at superspeedway qualifying than Michael McDowell, and he proved why again Saturday afternoon.

McDowell sped to his fifth straight pole on a drafting track during Busch Light Pole Qualifying for the YellaWood 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, topping both rounds of knockout qualifying and easily covering fellow Ford driver Austin Cindric in the pole shootout.

It’s the longest superspeedway qualifying streak in the NASCAR Cup Series since Bill Elliott won six consecutive superspeedway poles from 1985-’86.

The 39-year-old from Phoenix, Ariz., toured the 2.66-mile Talladega high banks in 52.310 seconds (183.063 mph) for his sixth career Cup Series pole, all of which have come this year.

McDowell’s top qualifying effort Saturday also allowed him to take the series lead in pole positions from 2021 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, with whom he’d been tied entering the weekend.

“It’s just amazing to have done what we’re doing in qualifying this year,” he said. “I’m just so proud of everybody on this [No.] 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang team. It’s hard to come down here and get the pole. But we found some things in the offseason, went to Daytona, and they worked well enough that we just kept the momentum going. We came down here with a game plan. The game plan was to sit on the pole, and we did that today.

“That puts us [back] in the lead for the most poles for the year, and that’s something we have circled to accomplish, but there’s a lot of racing left, obviously,” McDowell added. “More than anything, we had the car to win here last year too, and just needed about 400 more yards to get to the checkered flag first. Hopefully, tomorrow goes smoother than that, but to get [six] poles is pretty amazing.”

Cindric, the highest qualifying championship-eligible driver, will join McDowell on the front row Sunday hoping to give Team Penske a second superspeedway victory in the Cup Series playoffs. His teammate Joey Logano won at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway to open the postseason.

“[Starting up front] certainly gives us options from a strategy standpoint, and it obviously shows we have a really fast Discount Tire Ford Mustang,” noted Cindric. “Once again, Fords are really fast again at these types of racetracks. I’m proud of everyone at Ford Performance and Team Penske – you can see the consistency there with all of our cars being really, really close.

“Everyone that the shop should be proud of that one and I know we will have something to race with tomorrow.”

Todd Gilliland, McDowell’s Front Row Motorsports teammate, lines up third on the grid to likely serve as the veteran’s pusher at the green flag. Kyle Busch was the fastest Chevrolet driver, qualifying fourth.

Defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney made it four Ford Mustang Dark Horses in the top five, followed by Joey Logano and Austin Dillon.

Denny Hamlin led Toyota’s group of drivers on the grid in eighth, with Harrison Burton and Daniel Hemric closing out the 10 drivers that made it through both qualifying rounds.

Saturday marked just the second time all season that none of Hendrick Motorsports’ four drivers qualified inside the top 10, with Chase Elliott leading the quartet as the fastest of those that didn’t make the transfer to the pole shootout.

Elliott’s lap of 52.812 seconds (181.322 mph) in the No. 9 _ Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 fell .043 seconds short of advancing.

Kyle Larson (12th), William Byron (16th), and Alex Bowman (23rd) – in the other three Hendrick Chevrolets – also start deep in the field ahead of the biggest wild-card race of the Cup Series playoffs.

Other playoff drivers starting outside the top 10 include Tyler Reddick (14th), Christopher Bell (21st), Daniel Suarez (31st), and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe (36th), who qualified worst among the 12 drivers still vying for the title and will be buried early when racing begins Sunday afternoon.

The Talladega field features a full 40-car starting grid for just the fifth time all season.

Broadcast coverage of Sunday’s YellaWood 500, the second race in the playoff Round of 12, is slated for 2 p.m. ET live on NBC, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

The broadcast will feature side-by-side or full-screen coverage of every green-flag lap and kicks off a run of six straight Cup Series races on over-the-air broadcast television to close the season.