LAS VEGAS — A change of scene did nothing to diminish Michael McDowell’s qualifying prowess.
After winning the first six pole positions of his NASCAR Cup Series career with Front Row Motorsports last season, McDowell moved to Spire Motorsports in 2025 and apparently retained the speed he found last year.
Turning a lap at 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 28.883 seconds (186.961 mph) in Saturday’s time trials, McDowell claimed the top starting spot for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — his first Busch Light Pole Award at Las Vegas, his first of the season, the seventh of his Cup Series career and Spire’s first Cup Series pole in team history.
The 28.883-second circuit was the fastest qualifying lap at Las Vegas since the fall 2018 race.
RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Las Vegas
Turns 3 and 4 were the key to McDowell’s blistering lap. When his No. 71 Chevrolet stuck firmly in the first two corners, McDowell took full advantage during the balance of the run.
“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,” said McDowell, who beat reigning series champion Joey Logano (186.864 mph) for the pole by 0.015 seconds. “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.
In Saturday’s session, which featured a single lap from each car, Austin Cindric qualified third at 186.793 mph, followed by Kyle Busch (186.638 mph) and Erik Jones (186.632 mph).
Alex Bowman, Josh Berry, William Byron, Zane Smith and Kyle Larson claimed positions sixth through 10th on the starting grid, respectively.
Christopher Bell, seeking a fourth straight Cup Series victory, claimed the 13th starting spot but will drop to the rear at the start of the race as the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team elected to change a throttle body. John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 42 Legacy Motor Club team also made the change and will join Bell at the rear of the field when the green flag drops Sunday afternoon.
Chastain fastest in practice
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain topped the leaderboard in practice at 187.846 mph, besting Bubba Wallace (186.290 mph) and William Byron (186.175 mph).
Kyle Larson (185.982 mph) and Austin Dillon (185.695 mph) rounded out the top five.
MORE: Practice results
Noah Gragson (185.459 mph), Chase Elliott (185.433 mph), Christopher Bell (185.350 mph), Michael McDowell (185.236 mph) and Chris Buescher (185.008 mph) completed the top 10.
The only caution of practice occurred in Group 1 when Ryan Blaney had a right-rear tire go down, causing him to spin and back the No. 12 Ford into the Turn 2 wall. Blaney brought the car back to the garage for his Team Penske crew to evaluate the damage to the rear of the car.
Blaney did not post a qualifying lap as his team decided to repair his primary car instead of going to a backup for Sunday’s race.
Contributing: Staff reports