By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— Former Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell captured the pole position for Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – his fourth career pole, but first at the sport’s iconic track.

Michael McDowell, driver of the #34 Long John Silver’s Ford, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on August 23, 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)

It will be an all Front Row Motorsports front row thanks to McDowell’s qualifying lap of 183.165 mph around the 2.5-mile high banks in the No. 34 FRM Ford during Friday evening’s Busch Light Pole Qualifying session. His teammate Todd Gilliland will start beside him in the No. 38 FRM Ford – the two actually posting the exact same time in the first round of qualifying.

Ford Motor Company swept the top-six positions in time trials and had seven cars in the top 10 on the Daytona speed chart.

“Qualifying has never been a strength at superspeedways for us [as a team] but racing has,’’ McDowell said with a smile. “We just decided, okay, we are going to take as much time as we possibly have available to execute everything we can to the best of our ability.’’

“We just proved to ourselves with a lot of extra time put in, it has paid off,’’ he said of the team’s emphasis on improving qualifying at the big tracks such as Daytona.

Joey Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 winner, will start third in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, followed by Ryan Preece in the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and teammates Josh Berry in the No. 4 SHR Ford and Chase Briscoe in the No. 14 SHR Ford.

This year’s Daytona 500 winner William Byron was seventh fastest in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, with Team Penske’s Austin Cindric – the 2022 Daytona 500 winner – starting from the eighth position. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10.

The starting positions are key for Front Row Motorsports who is still trying to qualify for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and will need a race win to jump into the 16-driver Playoff field with only two races remaining to settle the championship eligibility.

“When it comes to tomorrow night, we’ll do what we always do. We’re going to race and help ourselves get to the front and stay in the front and be in good position,’’ McDowell said, adding. “The best thing we can do for our team and ourselves is work together because we have fast cars.” 

Defending race winner, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher holds a 16-point advantage in 15^th place and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain takes a mere one point lead into Saturday night’s race. They will start 13^th and 24^th, respectively. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who sits just behind Chastain a single point back, will start 18^th.

NOTES. …

*Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin addressed the media for the first time since he and his team received a massive penalty Thursday after NASCAR ruled his Bristol, Tenn. race-winning engine was not subsequently properly handled according to regulations.

The penalty included the loss of 75 driver and owner championship points – which drops Hamlin from third place in the standings to sixth place, 103 points behind leader, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick. Hamlin also lost 10 Playoff points and the team suffered a $100,000 fine. 

“Each race-winning engine must be inspected by NASCAR once the race team determines that its life cycle is complete,’’ NASCAR shared in its ruling. “In this instance, prior to presenting the engine to NASCAR for inspection, Toyota Racing Development disassembled and rebuilt the No. 11’s Bristol-winning race engine. Per the NASCAR Rule Book, this violation results in an L2 penalty to the race team and driver. Toyota Racing Development self-reported this violation.”

Toyota Racing Development (TRD) USA came forward and shared with NASCAR that it had “mishandled” the engine by re-building it before presenting it to NASCAR.

“As the engine builder for our partner NASCAR Cup Series teams, TRD is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre- and post-race,’’ said TRD President David Wilson. “Despite procedures being in place, Denny’s race winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly returned to our Costa Mesa facility, disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR per the rulebook. 

“Although we know with absolute certainty that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine.

Even though TRD has accepted blame for the situation, Hamlin allowed that it was a big competitive punch to him. Two days ago, he was fighting for the regular season championship and now with the penalty, he’s contending for a top-five finish in the standings during a season that includes three victories.

“You know you celebrate these one-point stage victories and race victories so much because you know every round, I’ve got that,’’ Hamlin said of the stiff penalty. “We were in contention for the regular season (championship), that’s gone.”

“… that’s the gut-punch that this format rewards regular season excellence but it allows you not to have a perfect day and still race for the championship and now I’m kind of back there in the middle.’’

*Chris Buescher comes into Saturday’s race as the defending winner and holds a slim, but all-important 16-point advantage in the Playoff standings. However, he knows in these big-track, drafting races that Daytona delivers, there is only so much in your control.

“When we come to these races, we know that,’’ said Buescher, driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford. “We can only control what we can in our very small circle and the rest of it will go as it may. Unfortunately, that’s just part of the game at these places.’’

Asked if he expected help from other Fords as he is the only Ford Mustang driver among the three competitors most fiercely competing for the final two playoff positions, Buescher conceded maybe there would be a push or some version of help mid-race, but he did not expect a fellow Ford to push him to a win, necessarily.

“I don’t know if it’s an expectation, it’s more of an ask if given an opportunity to help out a manufacturer car versus a competitor,’’ Buescher said. “I think the ask would be there to try and have that scenario in your mind from some of our teammates across the board on the Ford camp, but, no. I certainly don’t think you can expect it from others.

“We’re all competitors. We obviously have a very singular goal in mind, all of us for the same thing, and you’re not gonna get there if you’re helping out those that you’re gonna have to compete with at the end of the day. Again, it’s kind of just a small favor, if possible.’’

*Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs goes into Saturday night’s race ranked 14^th, 39-points atop the Playoff cutoff line. And while he’s not completely “comfortable” with the buffer, he said it does change their strategy somewhat for this race.

Earning stage points becomes more a priority to collect and a good solid finish versus a big gamble move for victory is something to consider.

“We’re looking at the big picture, it’s really hard to win one of these,’’ Gibbs said. “And I think at the end of the day, it’s down to the luck of the draw what position you are in and where you’re at.

“I think you have to play it safe, but it’s a hard one because you really just don’t know what’s going to happen.’’

*A two-time winner at Daytona International Speedway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. maintains he’s not any more cautious coming to the superspeedway high banks than anywhere else the NASCAR Cup Series races.

“I don’t get nervous, I feel like excited is the way I go into it,’’ Stenhouse said of his vibe coming to Daytona, where he hoisted his first career trophy in 2017’s 400-miler and then answered it with the 2023 Daytona 500.

The JTG Daugherty Racing driver enters the race ranked 25th, more than 200 points out of the championship eligibility and needing a victory Saturday night to advance to this year’s Playoffs. He concedes a win is the only way in at this point, but doesn’t necessarily expect the racing style Saturday night will be any more aggressive than it normally is.

“I think you look at speedway racing a little bit differently. I mean we’re all beating, banging and pushing each other and I would say 98 percent of the time there’s a wreck on the last lap,’’ Stenhouse said, adding, “I don’t think anybody really knows exactly what moves they’ll make until they’re put in those positions. And then you make them and figure it out after that. 

“I definitely just hope we have a shot at it; put ourselves in that position to be able to make a move, one way or the other, and try to win the race.”

*NASCAR issued a modification to cars following an accident last week at Michigan that saw Corey LaJoie’s No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet flip and launch into the air. LaJoie was uninjured, but the sanctioning body announced the adjustment on Wednesday.

“NASCAR will be mandating a new Right Side Rear Window Air Deflector beginning at Daytona,” NASCAR said in a statement. “This component increases the liftoff speed of the car in the early part of the spin, and the parts have been wind tunnel tested and quantified.

“The ‘fin’ matches what is currently run on the left side rear window and will be supplied to teams by NASCAR.”

“I think it’s good they looked at it and made a quick change and were proactive about it, that’s always a good thing,’’ Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron said of NASCAR’s response.

*Daniel Suárez said he believes his friend, reigning Formula One world champion Max Verstappen would be open to racing in NASCAR – sometime down the road. Verstappen, who leads the F1 standings en route to what would be a third consecutive title, is the longtime partner of Kelly Piquet –  the sister of Suárez’s wife Julia.  

“He likes to explore different things and I’ve talked to him about NASCAR,’’ Suárez said, noting that his own Trackhouse Racing team maintains a “Project 91” entry in various NASCAR Cup Series races for drivers from other motorsports genres wanting to venturing into a different genre.

“Why not, he’s like any other good driver. … if he ever gets the opportunity to do it, he wants to do it right,’ Suárez said. 

*Martin Truex Jr. said Friday that he expects to be entered in the 2025 Daytona 500, but would not say for what team that would be. Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI Racing has said he would field a car for Truex, but there has not been any sort of official announcement.

*Kaulig Racing announced Friday that Daniel Dye will drive the team’s No. 10 Chevrolet fulltime in the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series. The Daytona Beach-native Dye, 20, begins competing in his first career NASCAR championship run on Sunday, qualifying for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs.