Michael McDowell Scores Atlanta Pole; Denny Hamlin Starting Last
Do you believe that Michael McDowell had never scored a NASCAR Cup Series pole position prior to the 2024 season? It's quite puzzling, especially after the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang Dark Horse polished off his fifth pole-winning run of the season ahead of Sunday's Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The Arizona native is now tied with Kyle Larson for the most pole positions in the NASCAR Cup Series this season.
"Yeah, I would have told you you're lying," McDowell quipped when asked what his reaction would have been if someone told him he'd have this many poles by this point of the season before the year started.
McDowell clicked off a lap time of 30.927 seconds (179.261 mph) in the final round of Saturday's NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session to secure his latest pole position. For McDowell, it marked his fourth consecutive pole position in superspeedway events, a string which began at Atlanta in the spring. But he knows the qualifying position doesn't equal automatic success in superspeedway racing.
"I think coming into this weekend, [sitting] on the pole in the spring race earlier in the season, I felt that pressure to come back here and have another shot at it," McDowell said. "We executed our plan well today. You know, as far as whether it's an indication for tomorrow, I don't think it's a huge indicator of anything..."
While McDowell is not among the 16 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contenders, he will look to capture his third career win on Sunday.
RELATED: NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Starting Lineup
Starting alongside McDowell on the front row of Sunday's race will be defending series champion Ryan Blaney in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Blaney, who is in contention for the NASCAR Cup Series championship, was the fastest NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contender in the session.
Todd Gilliland, McDowell's teammate, and Josh Berry will occupy the second row of the starting grid in the Quaker State 400. They will be followed by Round of 16 Playoff contenders Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, William Byron, and Chase Briscoe, who will start from fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, and 10th.
Austin Dillon, who is not a Playoff contender, will start amongst that wad of championship contenders in the eighth position.
The remainder of the Playoff contenders are scattered throughout the field for Sunday's event at the 1.54-mile superspeedway-style race track, and while Blaney was the top Playoff driver in qualifying, Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin was dead-last.
Hamlin's lap time in the No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE was more than four tenths of a second slower than JJ Yeley, who will start one spot ahead of Hamlin in the race. Following his qualifying run, Hamlin noted that it was a powertrain issue that hampered his car during his run, but he feels confident that his team and Toyota Racing Development will find a fix to the ailment this evening.
"Just something in the powertrain, certainly wasn't up to speed," Hamlin explained. "They're going to look into it, and hopefully come up with the fix. But certainly there is something wrong there that they will get fixed overnight."
As for starting at the rear of the field, Hamlin, who is seeking his elusive first NASCAR Cup Series championship in his 19th full-time season, says he doesn't expect his starting spot to be a huge deterrent at a track, where positions can be changed quickly via the draft.
"Yeah, I don't think it's going to be a huge deal," Hamlin predicted. "Certainly, it's not ideal. We wish we'd be up front with good track position, but overall, I think with how this race plays out you're going to have some want to race, some not. I think that we didn't have any false hopes that we were going to qualify that well here, anyway, but certainly didn't expect it. Glad we had at least that one lap to identify that we had a problem."
Here is a breakdown of the starting spots of all of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contenders in Sunday's Quaker State 400 at Atlanta:
Pos | No. | Driver |
|---|---|---|
2 | 12 | Ryan Blaney |
5 | 2 | Austin Cindric |
6 | 5 | Kyle Larson |
7 | 22 | Joey Logano |
9 | 24 | William Byron |
10 | 14 | Chase Briscoe |
11 | 48 | Alex Bowman |
12 | 21 | Harrison Burton |
16 | 9 | Chase Elliott |
19 | 6 | Brad Keselowski |
20 | 54 | Ty Gibbs |
22 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. |
23 | 45 | Tyler Reddick |
26 | 20 | Christopher Bell |
30 | 99 | Daniel Suarez |
38 | 11 | Denny Hamlin |
The Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway is set for Sunday, September 8. USA Network will carry television coverage of the opening race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs beginning at 3 PM ET.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.