{"id":48383,"date":"2024-10-05T21:10:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T02:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=48383"},"modified":"2024-10-05T21:12:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T02:12:15","slug":"mcdowell-captures-fifth-consecutive-superspeedway-pole-for-tomorrows-talladega-cup-playoff-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/05\/mcdowell-captures-fifth-consecutive-superspeedway-pole-for-tomorrows-talladega-cup-playoff-race\/","title":{"rendered":"McDowell captures fifth consecutive superspeedway pole for tomorrow’s Talladega Cup Playoff race"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Front Row Motorsports and driver Michael McDowell continued a superspeedway qualifying mastery with McDowell claiming the pole position for Sunday\u2019s YellaWood 500 at the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Michael McDowell, driver of the #34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 05, 2024 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

McDowell\u2019s No. 34 FRM Ford turned a lap of 183.063 mph in Saturday\u2019s final qualifying session around the 2.66-mile high banks, besting Austin Cindric\u2019s lap in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford by less than two-tenths of a second.<\/p>\n

It was McDowell\u2019s sixth pole position of his career \u2013 all six coming this year \u2013 and five of them consecutively on superspeedways, also including a sweep at both Talladega and Atlanta Motor Speedway as well as the top starting position at Daytona International Speedway this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew coming here we\u2019d have a shot at the pole and it\u2019s a priority for us, so you feel that pressure of not making any mistakes and screwing it up,\u2019\u2019 McDowell said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the effort. We sort of had this in mind that today would be a day to come here and get the rest of the superspeedways locked down.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Cindric, a Playoff contender and the 2022 Daytona 500 winner, smiled  following qualifying and offered, \u201cHis right foot must be heavier than mine.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Ford drivers claimed six of the top-10 starting positions Saturday. McDowell\u2019s teammate Todd Gilliland was third fastest in the No. 38 FRM Ford Mustang. Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Kyle Busch, a two-time Talladega winner, was fourth fastest in the No. 8 RCR Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano were fifth and sixth fastest followed by RCR\u2019s Austin Dillon in the No. 3 Chevy. Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Denny Hamlin was the only Toyota to make the 10-car final round and he\u2019ll roll off sixth in the No. 11 JGR Supra. Wood Brothers Racing\u2019s Harrison Burton and Kaulig Racng\u2019s Daniel Hemric rounded out the fast-10.<\/p>\n

The reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Blaney is the defending race winner and has three Talladega trophies to his credit. 23XI Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick \u2013 the regular season champion \u2013 will roll off 14th.<\/p>\n

Cindric, Blaney, Logano and Hamlin are all current Playoff drivers, as are Blaney and Reddick. Hendrick teammates Chase Elliott, a two-time Talladega winner and Kyle Larson will start 11th and 12th.  Their teammate William Byron will roll off 16th.<\/p>\n

Christopher Bell, who will start 21st, Alex Bowman (23rd), Daniel Suarez (31st) and Chase Briscoe (36th) round out the Playoff lineup.<\/p>\n

NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light Pole Award – Michael McDowell (Driver, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford) – <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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NOTEBOOK<\/b><\/p>\n

*TIME TO GO<\/b><\/p>\n

23XI Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick won the regular season championship by a single point over Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Kyle Larson posting a two-win regular season that included victories at Talladega this spring and Michigan this summer. He won a coveted 15-point Playoff bonus with that regular season title, but even so, the 28-year old Californian comes into this weekend\u2019s race ranked ninth \u2013 four points below the cutoff line with two races remaining in this Round of 12.<\/p>\n

Reddick insisted Saturday that qualifying and pit stall will be especially important this weekend as he races to become one of the eight drivers advancing to the next round. He\u2019s had only a single top-10 in the four Playoff races and been 20th or worse in the other three. He sits ninth in the standings, four points behind former series champions, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for us, we kinda know what we need to do to get toward the front from the back during a green flag cycle, but we\u2019ll just be ready for anything,\u2019\u2019 said Reddick, driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota.  \u201cYou never know how the race is going to play out on the track, the pace of the field can determine what your options are. But we have a good understanding of what we need to do depending on what plays out on that strategy part of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do our jobs we\u2019ll be at the front of the field.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

*BACK-TO-BACK<\/b><\/p>\n

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney said he was very optimistic about accomplishing a rare feat in the sport \u2013 earning back-to-back titles \u2013 something that hasn\u2019t been done by a driver since Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Jimmie Johnson won five consecutively between 2006-10.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why you haven\u2019t seen a repeat champion back-to-back since Jimmie when he won five in a row, I don\u2019t know why,\u2019\u2019 Blaney said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to do.  Teams are always getting smarter.  It takes everything kind of perfect to go your way.  The team has to execute the best they can and you have to have a little bit of fortune on your side to not be in any unfortunate circumstances through the playoffs, so I don\u2019t know why.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look back and there have been plenty of teams good enough to win back-to-back and it just hasn\u2019t happened.  I think that just shows you how hard it is to do. <\/p>\n

Blaney\u2019s Team Penske organization has won the last two NASCAR Cup Series championships \u2013 with 2023 winner Joey Logano and Blaney<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident with our group and that\u2019s not from a cocky or arrogant standpoint,\u2019\u2019 Blaney said. \u201cI have faith in our group that we can do it and we\u2019re good enough to where we can do it again, and I just have so much faith in our team and our guys.  I\u2019d like to, obviously.  I think we\u2019re in a good position.  We just have to keep doing what we can and keep staying hungry.  It\u2019s funny, I think we\u2019re all even hungrier for a second one than we were the first.<\/p>\n

*RECORD PACE<\/b><\/p>\n

Chase Elliott, a two-time Talladega winner, agrees with the general consensus that this weekend\u2019s 500-miler on the sport\u2019s biggest track is a real opportunity for anyone to win. There have been 17 different race winners to date this season with Trackhouse Racing\u2019s Ross Chastain adding his name to the list last Sunday at Kansas — and there are still six races remaining in the season.<\/p>\n

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Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet, looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 05, 2024 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt does seem like we have a more consistent widespread number of winners yearly since we\u2019ve had this car, so that\u2019s been interesting to watch,\u2019\u2019 said Elliott, who is ranked seventh in the Playoff standings, only four points above the cutoff line with two races remaining in this round.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think a lot of that has come down to just the aero-platform that we have to work with, and just how much defense can be played by the lead car; restarts shaking out, how fast your pit stop is, all those little details throughout the day can put you in a good position at the end of those races. And a lot of guys are good enough to hold on for short stints. We see a lot of green-white-checkered finishes … all those things are really just recipes for more winners.”<\/p>\n

*BOWMAN CONFIDENCE<\/b><\/p>\n

Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman concedes he may not have been a consensus pick to challenge for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship, but after winning this summer in Chicago his team is invigorated competing.  And it shows.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s currently ranked sixth in the standings \u2013 eight points up on the cutoff line. He\u2019s had three top-10 finishes in the four Playoff races with a best showing of third place in the Atlanta opener. He was fifth at Talladega earlier this year and his best finish there is runner-up in 2019. He comes into the weekend very encouraged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a good four weeks for us, but a long way to go still,\u2019\u2019 Bowman said. \u201cJust need to keep executing on a high level. I certainly know that we are capable of it, that I\u2019m capable of it. Just have a long way to go and need to keep it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t won in the Playoffs and we\u2019re running okay, not amazing,\u2019\u2019 he added, conceding that he\u2019s been underestimated for much of his career at the NASCAR Cup Series level even with eight wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s been kinda the story of my career [overcoming doubters]. I know my situation with the team and what we\u2019re capable of, but that\u2019s just how things have been forever.”<\/p>\n

*TOYOTA TALLADEGA CHALLENGE<\/b><\/p>\n

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell said his Toyota teammate Reddick raised a good point during a discussion on their flight to Talladega. With so few Toyotas in Sunday\u2019s field – compared to the double digit entries for rival Chevrolet and Ford, there is more importance on working together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it all just boils down to having friends at the end of the race and executing the pit cycle,” said Bell, driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota. \u201cTyler and I were talking on the plane about strategies through the pit cycle and one thing he pointed out and I hadn\u2019t even thought about was we just have to be so diligent on our protocol and our system we have in place because we don\u2019t have the numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere if a couple Fords or a couple Chevrolets mess up on the pit cycle they can get away with it because they have almost twice as many cars as we do. Only having eight in the field, if you lose one or two it hurts. It you lose three or more, it\u2019s basically a strategy killer. You just have to be really mindful and very diligent. I think if you make mistakes and lose numbers it affects us more greatly than other manufacturers.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Front Row Motorsports and driver Michael McDowell continued a superspeedway qualifying mastery with McDowell claiming the pole position for Sunday\u2019s YellaWood 500 at the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). McDowell\u2019s No. 34 FRM Ford turned a lap of 183.063 mph […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":48391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[711,16,208],"class_list":["post-48383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-michael-mcdowell","tag-nascar","tag-talladega-superspeedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/GettyImages-2176972875-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1714&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-cAn","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48394,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48383\/revisions\/48394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}