NASCAR CUP SERIES
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING REPORT
MARCH 15, 2025
McDowell to Lead NASCAR Cup Series to the Green Flag at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st – Michael McDowell
4th – Kyle Busch
6th – Alex Bowman
8th – William Byron
10th – Kyle Larson
- For the second-straight weekend, Chevrolet earned the pole position in NASCAR’s top division. Laying down a lap of 28.883 seconds, at 186.961 mph, Michael McDowell and the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet team earned the top position of the qualifying speed chart and will lead the field to the green flag in tomorrow’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube.
- The feat – McDowell’s seventh career pole in the division – marks his first pole win in just five starts with Spire Motorsports after joining the Chevrolet organization at the beginning of the 2025 season.
- McDowell delivered Chevrolet its sixth all-time NASCAR Cup Series pole win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with this marking the manufacturer’s second pole triumph in the Next Gen era at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval.
- Chevrolet earned five of the top-10 starting positions for tomorrow’s 267-lap event, with McDowell leading the hometown hero, Kyle Busch, who qualified fourth in his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Hendrick Motorsports’ three past Las Vegas Motor Speedway winners also posted top-10 qualifying efforts, with Alex Bowman qualifying in the sixth position, William Byron in eighth and Kyle Larson rounding out the top-10.
Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
Wins: 13
Poles: 6
Top-Fives: 72
Top 10s: 137
Chevrolet’s season statistics heading into the fifth points-paying NASCAR Cup Series race:
Wins: 1
Poles: 2
Top-Fives: 8
Top-10s: 18
Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet – Pole Win Press Conference Quotes
Looking at the ghost car, you did something in three and four that no one else could come close to matching. What was it?
“Well, this is where I always say being a student and studying matters.
Christopher Bell, last year in round two, just kept it a little bit lower off of turn four and that’s how he was able to get the pole. And so when my car went through (turns) one and two and it had a lot of grip and I didn’t feel like I used it all up, I knew that I had an opportunity to potentially do that without scrubbing speed and without putting myself into a bad spot. Because that’s the chance you take, right? You put wheel into it; it gets loose and you start tracking up. The car had a lot of speed and, obviously, a lot of grip. And just from studying and seeing how C-Bell was able to do that last year in round two, and that was the difference between him getting the pole and not, I felt like it was the right move to make.”
Spire Motorsports has had speed all year. Specifically in qualifying, the organization has had a lot of good results. To finally get a pole, how important is it for the team’s momentum?
“Well, I mean, anytime you’re building positive momentum, it’s great in our sport. And it does matter. I mean, all of it matters. And last week was good for that, too. We got all three cars in the top-10.
You know, the race didn’t go well, right? I mean, two of our guys crashed in the same crash, so that’s no fun. And we had to go to the back with that steering rack change that we made. And then we ended up cutting a tire and that kind of ended our day. And, you know, when you look back at Sunday last week, you’re like — oh man, we had such fast cars and we don’t have anything to show for it. But that’s what’s great about our sport, is you get to re-rack them and get ready the next week.
And, you know, this was the true test for us. I really felt like that. I think I talked about it a little bit last week — this will be the test because Las Vegas, places like this, they challenge everything, right? Aerodynamics, engine, setup.. you have to hit everything just right to be fast here. And so this was kind of that unknown coming into it of — you know, will we have the speed that we’ve shown at other places? And obviously we did.
I’m just really proud of everybody at Spire Motorsports. We’re building something and we know that. And that’s kind of the mindset that we have. This is just one of those next steps that help us get to the next step that’ll help us get to the next step.”
Michael, this is now your seventh career pole, seventh in the last two seasons. What does it mean just to have kind of found that speed during qualifying and start getting these poles?
“Yeah, it’s cool. It’s great. I mean, it’s a lot of fun to come here and have a shot at being at the pole and executing everything perfectly, which is really tough in our sport. You have to hit everything perfectly. You guys saw how tight the times were. You know, one little mistake and that’s it. I’m proud of the effort that goes into making these cars fast. I think that one of the funny things that my crew chief, Travis Peterson, said like — you know, we got a pole at Gateway. We got obviously a lot of poles at the superspeedway’s. And then we got a pole in a mile-and-a-half. The only place I haven’t got a pole is a road course, which that’s supposed to be my thing, you know? We’ve been close. Hopefully this will be the year, right, that we can go get a pole at a road course as well and try to close out all types of tracks. But poles are fun and it is fun. Today will be great and everybody’s going to go to the hotel; be excited and be pumped up for tomorrow. But wins are what matter, right? And so tomorrow’s what matters. And so, you know, it’s a much tougher challenge to go win that race tomorrow, but that’s the goal. And I think we’ll have a race car to contend.”
I’m watching you on the TV as the other drivers are all going through their laps. You were exhaling and inhaling constantly and stressing out. What was the mood like when it finally was over and you were in?
“No, it’s great. I mean, it’s hard to watch when you go out early just because you know so many fast cars are coming. And with the times as close as they were — I mean, it’s literally hundreds and thousands of a second as you’re watching the tracker. And, you know, the tracker’s not always 100 percent. So you’re watching on TV and you’re seeing guys start to slide wide and things like that.
I’ll tell you one thing that was nice is normally you go out there and you put up a big lap, right? And you’re shaking and, you know, you got the adrenaline pumping and you execute it. And then you have to get ready to do it again because we used to have two rounds, right? And so when I got out, I was like — whew, I don’t have to do that again. So there’s a little bit of relief, as far as that goes. I think that over the years, too, we’ve been really good round one. I think that we’d probably would have a lot more poles if it was just round one. And then round two, we seem to, you know, slip back. So I think this new format might help us a little bit or help me. Maybe I’m good at executing it once but not twice. But, yeah, it’s nerve wracking watching everybody go. I think once the Penske cars went, I sort of felt a little bit of relief because typically they’re the fastest, as far as, trimmed out and straight line speed. And so once we had beat those guys, I felt like we were in a pretty good spot.”
Michael, the transition from Front Row to Spire Motorsports with Travis, is there any surprise from where you guys are already, speed-wise? What you are bringing to the team this year is already translating into speed on the racetrack. Just because you guys are, you know, different manufacturers, different teams, different processes..
“It’s so hard to answer that because as racers, we’re so unrealistic. Yes, we thought we would do this. We thought we’d sit on the Daytona pole, you know? I mean, that’s just the mindset. It doesn’t mean that it’s right and it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen because it is a lot to learn the tools and the processes.
What I would say is that Spire Motorsports had a really good baseline before we got there. I mean, you guys saw last year, at the end of last year — Carson (Hocevar) was rattling off top-10s, and him and Luke (Lambert) were qualifying in the second round and doing all the things. So, it’s not like we came there and we had a lot to go forward to be in this spot, you know? It’s details and it’s people and processes, and we still have a lot to do. I mean, we are not where we want to be. I mean, today the speed is where we want to be but there’s so many things that have to happen over the next 30 days, 90 days, six months, year to put us in a real position to contend week in and week out. But we’re moving in that direction. And so, I’m glad we are where we are but I’m not surprised by it. But I probably should be, if that answers it.”
You may not know yet but last fall the polesitter didn’t pick pit stall one, they picked pit stall six. And I’m curious if you know which one you’re going to pick..
“You know, it’s one of those things that I study all aspects of driving. I do not study aspects of strategy or pit stall selection. I let the smart people do that and they tell me where we’re going to be and how we’re going to go. And so, I’m not sure what Travis’ game plan is on that. But I do know that he’s prepared and he always thinks we’re going to get the pole, so he’s not surprised by it. He already has a plan, so we’ll see which one he picks here.
Honestly, I stay out of those types of things, unless I have an opinion with just track history and things like that. So, we’ll see.”
There’s been a conversation this year ongoing about the approval process between Mike Wallace, Helio Castroneves and Katherine Legge. Casey Mears is now also involved. Where do you see the approval process at NASCAR? You’ve obviously raced multiple different kinds of cars. You made the leap from ARCA yourself to Cup. Do you think there needs to be a different process? Are you fine with how things are? How do you see it?
“Well, I can tell you what my process was, as far as back then and I don’t know if it’s the same now. I signed my Cup deal with MWR before I ever stepped into a truck or Xfinity car or a Cup car, right? So, I knew I was going Cup racing. We just didn’t know how we were going to actually get there.
And so, I had to run a truck race at Martinsville to be approved to run an Xfinity car or Nationwide car or whatever it was at the time at a bigger track. And I think I ran Phoenix in the Xfinity car. And then I ran Texas in the Xfinity car.
And before I could run the Cup car at any of those other tracks, I had to run Daytona in an Xfinity car. Like, that was the process. I had to do all the different tracks in lower series in order to do that. And so, that was the approval process then. And I don’t know if it’s the same.
And, you know, I know what you’re asking. It’s a tough question to ask because, you know, Helio (Castroneves) is a world-class race car driver, and he should be approved. I mean, it would be crazy to think that he wouldn’t.
Now, does that mean that he has a ton of experience in our cars and is prepared for every single situation and every single dirty air situation and all those things? No. But either was Kyle Larson at the Indy 500, right? There are certain things that, if you don’t do it all the time, you’re just not going to know and you’re not going to have. Mike Wallace, he’s a tremendous speedway racer. Out of all the places that you could run him, you could probably run him there pretty confidently and not think about it. It’s just the amount of experience he has in all the different situations. Casey Mears, I mean, I have no problem with Casey Mears driving. He’s done 490 Cup starts and is a great race car driver. And he’s not that far removed from it. So I don’t think we’ve missed it. I don’t think it’s an issue. But you’re putting a lot on a driver to know all these different aspects in a one-off situation. Same with Katherine (Legge), too. She’s a world-class race car driver. Driven all over the world in all different types of race cars. I don’t feel like she’s underqualified.
But she doesn’t have the experience, situationally, in our cars. And I don’t know how much racing would — if she did an Xfinity race at Phoenix, I don’t know if that would change anything.”
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