Michael McDowell secures pole position at the Daytona Cup
Front Row Motorsports continued to live up to its name on superspeedways on August 23 when former Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell took the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
McDowell, who secured his fourth front row start of a superspeedway race this season, defeated teammate Todd Gilliland with a lap speed of 183.165 mph.
It is the fastest time achieved at Daytona since the introduction of the Next Gen car.
Ford’s Roush-Yates engines performed strongly in qualifying, taking seven of the top 10 spots. Joey Logano will start third for Team Penske. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Preece, Josh Berry and Chase Briscoe made up the rest of the all-Ford front three rows.
Defending Daytona 500 champion William Byron qualified seventh. Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott completed the top 10.
Erik Jones, who aborted his qualifying lap, will start last in the 40-car field. No one missed qualifying.
Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 is scheduled to start at 7:53 p.m. ET. The race will be broadcast on NBC and streamed on Peacock starting at 7 p.m. ET.
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