Michael McDowell claimed his seventh NASCAR Cup Series pole at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 (Photo Credit: Justin Sheldon | The Podium Finish)
LAS VEGAS — Michael McDowell has claimed the first career pole for the Spire Motorsports organization as the driver of the No. 71 Chevrolet Camaro will lead the field to green for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The Phoenix, Arizona native clocked in a lap of 28.883 at the 1.5-mile oval during Saturday’s qualification session with a speed of 186.961 mph, locking out the front row with defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano.
McDowell, who claimed six pole awards last season with Front Row Motorsports, is off and running as he begins his quest to defend the pole award title. This also marks the fifth different pole award winner within the first five races of the 2025 campaign.
Team Penske continues its impressive qualifying results as Austin Cindric qualified in third spot, followed by Kyle Busch and Erik Jones in fifth, respectively.
Alex Bowman, Josh Berry, William Byron, Zane Smith, and Kyle Larson rounded out the top 10 in qualifying on Saturday.
Christopher Bell, who is vying for his fourth consecutive win in the NASCAR Cup Series, which last occurred in 2007, qualified in 13th place for Sunday’s 400-mile event.
“Yeah, it’s cool.” Said McDowell in a post-qualifying press conference after claiming his seventh pole within the last two seasons.
“I mean, it’s a lot of fun to come here and have a shot at being at the pole and executing everything perfectly, which is really tough in our sport. You have to hit everything perfectly. You guys saw how tight the times were. You know, one little mistake, and that’s it. I’m proud of the effort that goes into making these cars fast.”
“We got obviously a lot of poles at the superspeedways. And then we got a pole in a mile-and-a-half. The only place I haven’t got a pole is a road course, which that’s supposed to be my thing, you know? We’ve been close. Hopefully, this will be the year, right, that we can go get a pole at a road course as well and try to close out all types of tracks. But poles are fun, and it is fun.”
Michael McDowell talking to the press after claiming pole for Sunday’s race (Photo Credit: Justin Sheldon | The Podium Finish)
“It’s so hard to answer that because as racers, we’re so unrealistic. Yes, we thought we would do this. We thought we’d sit on the Daytona pole, you know? I mean, that’s just the mindset. It doesn’t mean that it’s right, and it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen because it is a lot to learn the tools and the processes.”
Last week during the Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway, controversy unfolded as Katherine Legge, an experienced competitor in sports cars and open-wheel racing, made her Cup Series debut. Unfortunately, she spun out twice during the race, which led to a significant incident. Daniel Suárez, driving the No. 99 Chevrolet, collided with Legge’s driver-side door, resulting in both drivers being forced to retire from the race. Before this event, Legge had minimal stock car experience, with only five starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and one start in the ARCA Menards Series. This led many fans and drivers to speculate about what the approval process means for drivers competing at the top level of stock car racing.
“Well, I can tell you what my process was, as far as back then and I don’t know if it’s the same now. I signed my Cup deal with MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) before I ever stepped into a truck or Xfinity car or a Cup car, right? So, I knew I was going Cup racing. We just didn’t know how we were going to actually get there. And so, I had to run a truck race at Martinsville to be approved to run an Xfinity car or Nationwide car or whatever it was at the time at a bigger track. And, you know, I know what you’re asking. It’s a tough question to ask because, you know, Helio (Castroneves) is a world-class race car driver, and he should be approved. I mean, it would be crazy to think that he wouldn’t.”
McDowell is ready to fight for his third-career win in Sunday afternoon’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will air live on FS1 on Sunday, March 16, at 12:30 pm PST.
Pennzoil 400 Las Vegas Motor Speedway Qualifying Results
| Pos | Car No. | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | 71 | Michael McDowell | Spire Motorsports | 28.883 |
| 2 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | 28.898 |
| 3 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | 28.909 |
| 4 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Richard Childress Racing | 28.933 |
| 5 | 43 | Erik Jones | Legacy Motor Club | 28.934 |
| 6 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports | 28.936 |
| 7 | 21 | Josh Berry | Wood Brothers Racing | 28.939 |
| 8 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | 28.944 |
| 9 | 38 | Zane Smith | Front Row Motorsports | 28.946 |
| 10 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | 28.950 |
| 11 | 17 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing | 28.964 |
| 12 | 60 | Ryan Preece | RFK Racing | 28.967 |
| 13 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | 28.984 |
| 14 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing | 28.991 |
| 15 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | 28.995 |
| 16 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | 29.000 |
| 17 | 10 | Ty Dillon | Kaulig Racing | 29.019 |
| 18 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing | 29.020 |
| 19 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing | 29.021 |
| 20 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing | 29.035 |
| 21 | 4 | Noah Gragson | Front Row Motorsports | 29.059 |
| 22 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | 29.068 |
| 23 | 99 | Daniel Suárez | Trackhouse Racing | 29.082 |
| 24 | 19 | Chase Briscoe | Joe Gibbs Racing | 29.131 |
| 25 | 77 | Carson Hocevar | Spire Motorsports | 29.133 |
| 26 | 41 | Cole Custer | Haas Factory Team | 29.135 |
| 27 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | 29.149 |
| 28 | 88 | Shane van Gisbergen | Trackhouse Racing | 29.185 |
| 29 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Joe Gibbs Racing | 29.191 |
| 30 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | Legacy Motor Club | 29.243 |
| 31 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Hyak Motorsports | 29.285 |
| 32 | 34 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | 29.344 |
| 33 | 7 | Justin Haley | Spire Motorsports | 29.371 |
| 34 | 35 | Riley Herbst | 23XI Racing | 29.788 |
| 35 | 51 | Cody Ware | Rick Ware Racing | 30.093 |
| 36 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | No Time |
