How’s that for a surprise?
Michael McDowell and Travis Peterson have collected the first-ever NASCAR Cup Series pole position for Spire Motorsports, laying down an incredible lap in Sunday’s single-car qualifying session from Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
After placing ninth in the series’ sole practice session from the 1.5-mile facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, McDowell surged to the top of the speed charts in the time trials session, posting a lap time of 28.883 seconds (186.961mph) to edge out defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano.
“Just so proud of all the men and women at Spire Motorsports,” said McDowell. “We had three cars in the top-10 last week, and then to come to a mile-and-a-half, for us, our first mile-and-a-half and have this much speed and sit on the pole, it’s just a testament to all the hard work from everyone at Spire. It gives us great pit stall selection, great opportunity to lead some laps, get some stage points, and put us in position tomorrow.”
Logano, who made it to Victory Lane in last Fall’s Playoff event from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, will start on the outside of the front row in his No. 22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse – a great showing for sponsor Pennzoil, who serves as the title sponsor of the event.
“Different qualifying session than we typically have here, usually handling comes into play a little bit more than it did there,” said Logano. “Seems like all the cars handle pretty well, a lot more wide open time from everybody. Gosh, this close, two weeks in a row to be that close to a pole and not get one hurts a little bit.”
Austin Cindric landed just behind Joey Logano, his teammate at Team Penske, on the speed charts, posting a third-place starting spot, the third top-three qualifying effort for the No. 2 Ford Mustang in 2025.
Kyle Busch posted the fourth-fastest lap in qualifying from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his home track, while for the second straight weekend, Erik Jones and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB recorded a top-five starting spot.
It’s just the second time in his career that Jones has recorded back-to-back top-five starts in the NASCAR Cup Series – the first of which came in 2019 while at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Former Las Vegas winner Alex Bowman will start from sixth place, with Josh Berry, William Byron, Zane Smith, and Kyle Larson completing the first five rows in the starting lineup for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas.
Christopher Bell, who enters the weekend looking for his fourth consecutive victory in the NASCAR Cup Series, will start Sunday’s event from 13th in his No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE.
Other notables include Chris Buescher (11th), Tyler Reddick (14th), Denny Hamlin (15th), Chase Elliott (16th), Ross Chastain – who was quickest in practice – (19th), Bubba Wallace (20th), Chase Briscoe (24th), Brad Keselowski (27th), Ty Gibbs (29th), and Ryan Blaney (36th).
Blaney, driving the No. 12 Menards / Pennzoil Ford Mustang, will start shotgun on the NASCAR Cup Series field on Sunday, after crashing in practice due to a flat right-rear tire. The Team Penske team will attempt to fix the primary racecar ahead of Sunday’s event.
The Pennzoil 400 will take place on Sunday, March 16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 3:30 PM ET on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
