Michael McDowell will lead the field at Sunday’s Pennzoil 400. He secured pole position at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a lap of 28.883 seconds — just 0.01 seconds quicker than three time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano. This marks McDowell’s first NASCAR Cup Series pole for Spire Motorsports.
Michael McDowell Stuns Joey Logano To Secure Pole for 2025 Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas
After a breakout season in qualifying with six poles for Front Row Motorsports, McDowell has carried that momentum into Spire Motorsports in 2025. No driver has posted a faster qualifying lap at Las Vegas since the fall of 2018 than McDowell’s 28.883-second run (186.961 miles per hour).
Michael McDowell knew he had it wrapped up halfway through Christopher Bell's qualifying lap.
He earns his first pole of the 2025 season and his first with Spire Motorsports pic.twitter.com/gytUKaHpbI
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) March 15, 2025
The key to McDowell’s pole-winning lap was Turns 3 and 4. After his No. 71 Chevrolet held firm through the first two corners, he powered through the rest of the run with confidence.
“When my car went through (Turns) 1 and 2 and had a lot of grip, I didn’t think I had used it all up,” McDowell said after the race. “I knew that I had an opportunity to potentially do that (run the final two corners) without scrubbing speed and without putting myself in a bad spot.
“That’s the chance you take, right? You put wheel into it, get loose, and you start tracking up. The car had a lot of speed, obviously, and a lot of grip, and just from studying and seeing how (Christopher) Bell was able to do that last year in Round 2 … I felt like that was the right move to make.”
McDowell has now matched Ward Burton, Morgan Shepherd, and Bob Welborn in career Cup Series poles, tying him for 82nd place on the all-time list.
The qualifying session saw each car run a single lap, with Austin Cindric securing third at 186.793 mph, just ahead of Kyle Busch (186.638) and Erik Jones (186.632).
Alex Bowman, Josh Berry, William Byron, Zane Smith, and Kyle Larson (last year’s winner) locked in spots six through 10 on the grid.
Christopher Bell, chasing his fourth straight Cup Series victory, qualified 13th but will start from the rear due to a throttle body change on his No. 20 Toyota. John Hunter Nemechek will also drop to the rear after his No. 42 team made the same adjustment.
The Pennzoil 400 is scheduled for Sunday, March 16, at 3:30 p.m. ET at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.