McDowell, whose first career pole came earlier this season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, was fastest in both rounds on Saturday, winning the pole with an average lap speed of 182.022 mph over fellow Ford driver Austin Cindric (181.739 mph).
In three superspeedway races this season, McDowell has started second, first and now second. He was involved in a wreck in the season-opening Daytona 500 and finished eighth at Atlanta.
“I’m just so proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports. It’s a total team effort,” said McDowell, whose only Cup win came in the 2021 Daytona 500. “We got the front row at Daytona and the pole at Atlanta. We just got that taste of it like, ‘Hey, we can do this.’
“A lot of effort goes into it. The Mustang celebrated 60 years this week so it’s cool to be able to the pole for them. We just got to get a Mustang in Victory Lane tomorrow.
“There’s a lot of good cars starting up front with us, a lot of teammates. Hopefully, we can do all the things we need to do and execute. We got the speed, now we need to put it all together.”
McDowell’s Front Row Motorsports teammate, Todd Gilliland, ended up third fastest (181.401 mph), Kyle Busch was fourth and the top Chevrolet and Austin Dillon fifth.
Completing the top 10 starting lineup are Martin Truex Jr. (the top Toyota), Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell.
Round 1
McDowell led an impressive first round for Ford with an average lap speed of 181.567 mph.
Busch ended up second quick (180.782 mph) while McDowell’s teammate, Gilliland, was third (180.679 mph).
Ford drivers Cindric and Logano rounded out the top five.
Also advancing to the final round were Truex, Dillon, Bell, Buescher and Elliott, who grabbed the final transfer spot while the last car to qualify.
Prior to the start of the first round, NASCAR announced that the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Kyle Larson would not be allowed to participate in qualifying.
The team was penalized for making an unapproved adjustment to the roof rails of the car while it was being pushed to the grid.
Without taking part in qualifying, Larson will lose pit selection and in essence have to start from the rear of Sunday’s race.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Motorsport.com – NASCAR – Stories…