By David Morgan, Associate Editor
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Never count out Michael McDowell when it comes to winning a pole at a superspeedway.
The driver of the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet posted the fast lap on Saturday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway to secure the pole position for Sunday’s YellaWood 500 – the second race in the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
With a lap of 52.481 seconds, 182.466 seconds, McDowell banked his second pole of the season (Las Vegas – March) and eighth overall in his career. Of those eight poles, six of them have come on a superspeedway.
Saturday’s pole is the first superspeedway pole for McDowell since joining Spire Motorsports this season.
“It’s been something we’ve been working really hard at Spire Motorsports is getting more speed in our superspeedway cars,” said McDowell. “Everything went right. The cloud did come, the wind did hit just right. Everybody back at the Hendrick engine shop, thank you guys so much. They’ve been working really hard.
“It’s no secret, the Fords have been kicking our butts at these places and we felt like we had some areas we needed to gain. Felt like we gained them and sitting here with the pole is awesome. Hats off to everyone at Chevy and everyone at Spire Motorsports for working really hard.
“It’s not a win, but we’ll take it.”
Playoff contender Chase Briscoe, who currently occupies the final transfer spot in the Round of 8, will start alongside McDowell on the front row in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Briscoe noted that if he isn’t able to win on Sunday, he will feel comfortable leaving Talladega no longer being on the cut-off line to give himself a buffer heading into Martinsville.
“I would just like to not be on the cut line,” said Briscoe. Just because you look at the eight guys or the seven other guys, I guess all of them will probably run in the top-eight all day long in Martinsville.
“Like Hendrick, Penske and JGR are normally the four or the three teams that are up front all day long, and so I just don’t think you want to be on that cut line because the odds of a Penske car or somebody below the cut line winning are probably pretty good and you’d hate to be say even 20 points above the cut line and then somebody wins and knocks you out.
“So yeah, for me, I think it would just be not being on the cut line, you just can control your own destiny a little bit more. I feel like if you’re above that cut line, you’re then only racing really one or two other guys versus just hoping that another guy doesn’t win.”
Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric, and Ryan Preece will round out the top-five, followed by Josh Berry, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Riley Herbst, and Bubba Wallace.
Bell enters Talladega 20 points above the cut-off line, with Blaney 31 points out.
Other Playoff contenders outside the top-10 include William Byron in 13th, Joey Logano in 16th, Denny Hamlin in 17th, Kyle Larson in 19th, and Chase Elliott in 25th place.
Coming into Sunday’s race with a 23-point deficit, Elliott explained on Saturday prior to qualifying that there is no points margin he would be comfortable with leaving Talladega and heading to Martinsville to punch his ticket to the finale.
“There is no margin other than winning.”
Sunday’s YellaWood 500 is scheduled for 2:00 pm ET on NBC.
