Michael McDowell earned the pole position for Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway with a lap time of 49.136 seconds (183.165 mph) during the final lap of Friday night’s qualifying session at the 2.5-mile Speedway.
This is McDowell’s fourth pole position of the season and career in the NASCAR Cup Series. Although he was happy to have won another pole, McDowell was personally disappointed for his Front Row Motorsports teammate Todd Gilliland, who passed for the pole.
“I miss the bad for Todd [Gilliland], I know, he wanted his first pole so bad and it’s our [fourth] this year, so it would be nice to share the love, but I’m really proud of the No. 38 team and these guys fought. hard this year and I know his time will come, but today is also great.” Gilliland, in the No. 1 Ford Mustang. 34 Ford.
The front row sweep for Front Row Motorsports is the first front row sweep for the organization, which truly lives up to its name on Friday at Daytona.
“I’m very proud of everyone at Front Row Motorsports,” said McDowell. “Having both cars on the front row is incredible, it just shows how hard everyone is working on the front row. We know we have two chances here. It’s a big weekend for us, so the two cars at the front is really important.” So hopefully we can stay in front, control the race and give them a chance to make the playoffs. “To show how prepared their cars are this week, Front Row Motorsports teammates Gilliland and McDowell set the same lap time. (49.219 seconds) to lead the first lap of the qualifying session
Other Ford drivers Joey Logano, Ryan Preece, Josh Berry and Chase Briscoe will start from positions three through six, while William Byron, Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott complete the top 10 qualifiers for the 400-mile event on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.
The winner of the 2018 Coke Zero Erik Jones Sugar 400, stopped his qualifying run due to a suspension problem while running the back pole in his qualifying lap, the No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB hammered the top and bottom of the race Saturday night at Daytona.
