Michael McDowell, who impressed by turning the second-fastest lap of Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice session and went on to nab the seventh-place starting spot in qualifying later that day, will have to drop to the rear of the field prior to the green flag of Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
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McDowell’s No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet was discovered to have a steering rack issue, which resulted in the team changing it out for a new steering rack on Sunday morning. Due to the mechanical repair, McDowell will have to drop to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to his No. 71 Workforce Chevrolet.
Despite dropping to the rear, McDowell will officially be credited with the seventh starting spot for Sunday’s race, which is a small win for the Spire Motorsports team from a historical standpoint for the organization.
Saturday’s qualifying session marked the first time in the history of the team that it put three of its cars inside of the top-eight positions in a NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session. Carson Hocevar secured the third starting spot in the No. 77 Chevrolet, while Justin Haley slotted in directly behind McDowell in the eighth position.
William Byron will start Sunday’s race from the pole position after knocking Joey Logano from the top spot at the end of Saturday’s qualifying session.
The NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway is set to go green at 3:41 PM ET on Sunday, March 9. The race will be televised by FS1 with coverage beginning at 3:30 PM ET.
