Michael McDowell roared out of the gates in his fifth qualifying session with Spire Motorsports by winning the Busch Light Pole Award for the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 15.
The event’s starting lineup was determined through a standard practice and qualifying procedure. The field was split into two 25-minute practice sessions apiece and one single-lap qualifying session (impound). The groups and qualifying order were determined by metrics that included 70% based on previous race finish by owner and 30% based on owner points standings, with the best-scoring competitors placed in the second group.
McDowell was the ninth-fastest competitor during the event’s practice session earlier on Saturday. He followed that up during the qualifying session with a pole-winning lap at 186.961 mph in 28.883 seconds. besting the reigning three-time champion Joey Logano by 0.015 seconds.
With the pole, McDowell notched his seventh career pole in the NASCAR Cup Series division, his first at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and his first driving the No. 71 Chevrolet entry for Spire Motorsports. Of note, the pole award is the first for Spire Motorsports in NASCAR’s premier series.
It was McDowell’s first Cup pole in both the 2025 campaign and at Las Vegas and it left the 2021 Daytona 500 champion from Glendale, Arizona, beaming. A year ago, he notched a career-high six poles, five of which occurred at superspeedway venues between Atlanta Motor Speedway, Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. Currently ranked in 15th place in the 2025 driver’s standings, McDowell, who has finished in the top 13 through the first three scheduled events, will strive to contend for his first Cup victory of the year for Sunday’s main event at Las Vegas.
“[I’m] Just so proud of all the men and women at Spire Motorsports,” McDowell said on Prime Video. “We had three cars in the top 10 last week [at Phoenix] and then to come to a mile-and-a-half [track] and to have this much speed and sit on the pole. [It is] Just [a] testament to all the hard work to everybody at Spire. I’m really proud of everybody.
“It gives us great pit stall selection, great opportunity to lead some laps, get some stage points and put ourselves in position tomorrow. No matter what, when you’re running wide open in Vegas, it’s scary, man. It really is. I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s pretty wild out there. Really thankful, great job everybody and we’ll go race tomorrow.”
Top-10
McDowell will share the front row with Joey Logano, the latter of whom posted his best qualifying lap at 186.864 mph in 28.898 seconds. Logano is a four-time Cup race winner at Las Vegas. He previously won the spring Vegas event and fall Vegas event, twice apiece, including this past October, enabling him to transfer to the Championship 4 round at Phoenix Raceway and win his third title.
Austin Cindric, Logano’s teammate at Team Penske, will start in third place with a qualifying lap of 186.793 mph in 28.909 seconds. Kyle Busch, a hometown hero, will line up in fourth place with a qualifying lap at 186.638 mph in 28.933 seconds and Erik Jones will round out the top-five starting spots in fifth place with a qualifying lap at 186.632 mph in 28.934 seconds
Alex Bowman, Josh Berry, William Byron, Zane Smith and Kyle Larson, the latter of whom is the reigning spring Las Vegas winner, completed the top-10 starting spots.
Remaining Positions
Notably, Christopher Bell, who is pursuing both a fourth consecutive Cup victory to the 2025 season and his first win at Las Vegas, will start in 13th place. In addition, the following names that include Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Noah Gragson, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe, Carson Hocevar, Brad Keselowski, rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, John Hunter Nemechek, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Todd Gilliland and rookie Riley Herbst will start 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd and 34th, respectively.
The only competitor who did not post a qualifying lap was Ryan Blaney, the 2023 Cup Series champion. During the event’s practice session, Blaney blew a rear tire, spun and backed his No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry against the outside wall through the first two turns. Despite the team’s effort to repair the primary car, Blaney will start Sunday’s main event at Las Vegas in 36th place, the tail end of the field.
With 36 competitors vying for 36 starting spots, all of the entered competitors made the main event.
Starting Lineup
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
1. Michael McDowell, 186.961 mph, 28.883 seconds
2. Joey Logano, 186.864 mph, 28.898 seconds
3. Austin Cindric, 186.793 mph, 28.909 second
4. Kyle Busch, 186.638 mph, 28.933 seconds
5. Erik Jones, 186.632 mph, 28.934 seconds
6. Alex Bowman, 186.619 mph, 28.936 seconds
7. Josh Berry, 186.599 mph, 28.939 seconds
8. William Byron, 186.567 mph, 28.944 seconds
9. Zane Smith, 186.554 mph, 28.946 seconds
10. Kyle Larson, 186.528 mph, 28.950 seconds
11. Chris Buescher, 186.438 mph, 28.964 seconds
12. Ryan Preece, 186.419 mph, 28.967 seconds
13. Christopher Bell, 186.310 mph, 28.984 seconds
14. Tyler Reddick, 186.265 mph, 28.991 seconds
15. Denny Hamlin, 186.239 mph, 28.995 seconds
16. Chase Elliott, 186.207 mph, 29 seconds
17. Ty Dillon, 186.085 mph, 29.019 seconds
18. AJ Allmendinger, 186.079 mph, 29.020 seconds
19. Ross Chastain, 186.072 mph, 29.021 seconds
20. Bubba Wallace, 185.982 mph, 29.035 seconds
21. Noah Gragson, 185.829 mph, 29.059 seconds
22. Austin Dillon, 185.771 mph, 29.068 seconds
23. Daniel Suarez, 185.682 mph, 29.082 seconds
24. Chase Briscoe, 185.370 mph, 29.131 seconds
25. Carson Hocevar, 185.357 mph, 29.133 seconds
26. Cole Custer, 185.344 mph, 29.135 seconds
27. Brad Keselowski, 185.255 mph, 29.149 seconds
28. Shane van Gisbergen, 185.027 mph, 29.185 seconds
29. Ty Gibbs, 184.989 mph, 29.191 seconds
30. John Hunter Nemechek, 184.660 mph, 29.243 seconds
31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 184.395 mph, 29.285 seconds
32. Todd Gilliland, 184.024 mph, 29.344 seconds
33. Justin Haley, 183.855 mph, 29.371 seconds
34. Riley Herbst, 181.281 mph, 29.788 seconds
35. Cody Ware, 179.444 mph, 30.093 seconds
36. Ryan Blaney, 0 mph, 0 seconds
The 2025 Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is set to occur on Sunday, March 16, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
