Michael McDowell has secured the pole position for Sunday’s Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. His lap of 182.022 mph marks his second pole of the season and his first since Atlanta. McDowell has been notably strong in drafting style races this season, consistently starting from the front row.
Austin Cindric qualified in second place with a lap of 181.739 mph, followed by Todd Gilliland, Kyle Busch, and Austin Dillon rounding out the top five qualifiers. Other notable drivers who secured top-10 starting positions include Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, and Christopher Bell.
Unfortunately, Kyle Larson was unable to make a qualifying lap due to unapproved adjustments made to the roof rails of his car, resulting in him starting at the rear of the field for Sunday’s race. The green flag is set to wave at 3:20 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon, with Fox providing coverage of the Cup race. Pre-race coverage will begin with NASCAR RaceDay on FS1 at 1:30 p.m., continuing on Fox at 2 p.m. Any additional penalties for Larson’s team will be announced later in the week.
