Michael McDowell played his cards right and went to the top of the board in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday (March 15), putting down a fast lap of 186.961 mph to win the pole for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube.
He held the top spot through most of the session, as the following 22 drivers could not best his time.
It’s McDowell’s seventh career pole and first of the season for the No. 71 Spire Motorsports driver.
Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Austin Cindric took positions second and third, respectively. Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch and Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones rounded out the top-five.
Alex Bowman, Josh Berry, William Byron, Zane Smith and Kyle Larson will begin sixth through 10th, respectively.
Ryan Blaney will start at the rear after he blew a tire and rear-ended the wall in practice. The team decided to fix the car rather than go to a backup.
The No. 12 goes for a spin in practice and heads to the garage early. pic.twitter.com/q042KIabbG
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 15, 2025
Since there were just 36 cars entered, all will run the race.
NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube Starting Lineup
The Pennzoil 400 is scheduled to run Sunday, March 16 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.