Chasing the Pole: Michael McDowell Takes Front Row at Talladega Superspeedway

On Sunday, Michael McDowell claimed the pole position for the NASCAR Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. This marked his second pole of the season and his first since the race in Atlanta. McDowell has been consistently on the front row for all three drafting style races this season.

Behind him, Austin Cindric qualified in second place with a lap of 181.739 mph, followed by Todd Gilliland, Kyle Busch, and Austin Dillon. Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, and Christopher Bell rounded out the top 10 starting positions for the race.

However, Kyle Larson was unable to make a qualifying lap due to unapproved adjustments made to the car’s roof rails. As a result, he will have to start the race at the rear of the field with any additional penalties to be announced later.

The green flag for Sunday’s race is set to wave at 3:20 p.m. ET with Fox providing coverage of the Cup race. Pre-race coverage will begin on FS1 with NASCAR RaceDay at 1:30 p.m., before switching over to Fox at 2 p.m.

McDowell’s pole position is his second this season and comes after he was fast in both practice sessions on Saturday.

“I’m really happy about this,” McDowell said after qualifying. “This is our best car yet this year and it shows that we’re making progress.”

With Larson starting from the back of the field, it will be interesting to see how he fares in Sunday’s race.

“It stinks not being able to qualify up front,” Larson said after failing to make a qualifying lap.

“But I know we have a good car and we can work our way through it.”