TALLADEGA, Ala. — At the conclusion of the final round of qualifying Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, it was Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell who claimed the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500.
McDowell set the pole-winning pace with a lap time of 52.481 seconds, at 182.466 mph, around the 2.66-mile Alabama venue to claim his second pole of the 2025 season.
It was the eighth pole of his career.
“For qualifying at Talladega (Superspeedway), there’s not a whole lot the driver does but try not to make any mistakes,” McDowell said. “But more than anything, I talked about it before I went out there, Daytona got rained out for qualifying and we were looking forward to seeing where our car was at and if we’ve made any gains from the first-two superspeedway races. We didn’t really know where we’re at today, just because we didn’t have that baseline at Daytona.
“But yeah, really proud of the effort from everybody at Spire Motorsports,” McDowell added. “We’ve worked really hard to find some speed, and everybody at the Hendrick Engine Shop, as well, just trying to catch-up on these superspeedway’s. Having a fast car is important. Being able to lead lanes and control lanes, you have to have speed to do that, so the pole is awesome. But more importantly, just knowing you got a fast car going into the race tomorrow.”
Chase Briscoe qualified second in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. It will be his 21st top-10 start of the season.
Kyle Busch will start third in a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, while Ford drivers Austin Cindric, Ryan Preece and Josh Berry claimed the fourth through sixth starting positions.
Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Riley Herbst and Bubba Wallace filled the top 10.
