March 15, 2025 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Michael McDowell wins pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A change of scene did nothing to diminish Michael McDowell’s qualifying prowess.

After winning the first six pole positions of his NASCAR Cup Series career with Front Row Motorsports last season, McDowell moved to Spire Motorsports in 2025 and apparently retained the speed he found last year.

Turning a lap at 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 28.883 seconds (186.961 mph) in Saturday’s time trials, McDowell claimed the top starting spot for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400—his first Busch Light Pole Award at Las Vegas, his first of the season and the seventh of his career.

Turns 3 and 4 were the key to McDowell’s blistering lap. When his No. 71 Chevrolet stuck firmly in the first two corners, McDowell took full advantage during the balance of the run.

“When my car went through (Turns) 1 and 2 and had a lot of grip, I didn’t think I had used it all up,” said McDowell, who beat reigning series champion Joey Logano (186.864 mph) for the pole by 0.015 seconds. “I knew that I had an opportunity to potentially do that (run the final two corners) without scrubbing speed and without putting myself in a bad spot.

“That’s the chance you take, right? You put wheel into it, get loose, and you start tracking up. The car had a lot of speed, obviously, and a lot of grip, and just from studying and seeing how (Christopher) Bell was able to do that last year in Round 2 … I felt like that was the right move to make.

In Saturday’s session, which featured a single lap from each car, Austin Cindric qualified third at 186.793 mph, followed by Kyle Busch (186.638 mph) and Erik Jones (186.632 mph).

Alex Bowman, Josh Berry, William Byron, Zane Smith and Kyle Larson claimed positions six through 10 on the starting grid, respectively.

Christopher Bell, seeking a fourth straight Cup Series victory, claimed the 13th starting spot.


Breakthrough win can’t come soon enough for Kyle Larson

To borrow a phrase from philosopher Rene Descartes, “the future is now” where Kyle Larson is concerned.

Never mind that Larson will race on two of his best tracks after Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Larson isn’t concentrating on Homestead-Miami Speedway (Mar. 23), where he loves to run the wall, or Martinsville Speedway (Mar. 30), statistically one of his best tracks in the Next Gen era.

He doesn’t plan to wait for a breakthrough moment until the NASCAR Cup Series has moved on from Sin City.

“I’m hoping to break through this week,” Larson said emphatically.

That’s not an unrealistic ambition for a driver who has won three of the last eight races—and two of the last three—at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. With Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Bowman also claiming victories in that eight-race span, HMS has established itself as the dominant organization at the 1.5-mile track.

Standing in Larson’s way, however, is his dirt-track rival, Christopher Bell, who brings a three-race winning streak to the Nevada desert.

Larson doesn’t resent Bell’s success—yet.

“I had a great season in 2021 and was able to win three points-paying races in a row twice that year—four in a row once with the All-Star Race in there,” Larson said. “So I think having lived through it on my own, I can respect it a lot more, and it doesn’t bother me when I see somebody else having success like that.

“If he wins this weekend, maybe it’s like ‘All right, this is getting annoying.’”


Kyle Busch sees concrete improvement in the quality of his RCR cars

Last year, for the first full season in his career, Kyle Busch failed to win a NASCAR Cup Series race, ending a record 19-year streak of at least one victory per season.

With his last win having come at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on June 4, 2023, Busch’s drought has now reached a career-long 61 races.

On the occasions when he has a car with the potential to win, Busch has to resist the urge to push too hard.

“When I was winning a lot, you were doing it quite often,” Busch said. “You were in position quite often. And so you could harness those emotions and those feelings, be able to go out there and just do your job and kind of let it come to you.”

That wasn’t the case last year. On Sept. 29 at Kansas Speedway, Busch felt his car was capable of winning. He led 26 laps at the 1.5-mile speedway, but late in the race, he tried to drive through an opening next to the wall, only to have the hole close quickly and pinch him into the barrier.

“Kansas last fall, I felt rushed,” said Busch, who finished 19th. “I felt hurried. I felt like I needed to get through the traffic as fast as I could, and I put myself in a bad spot; we hit the wall and lost the race.

“So, you know, those things are certainly on your mind as you come to them, especially with as close as the competition is today.”

Fortunately, Busch’s Richard Childress Racing cars have proven to be more consistently competitive this season. He led a race-high 42 laps at Circuit of the Americas and was out front when a late caution cost him a chance to win.

Busch has scored top-10 finishes in his last three races this season and is seventh in the Cup standings, tied with reigning champion Joey Logano and perennial contender Denny Hamlin.

“So far so good,” Busch said. “I mean, from last year to this year … just, you know, Legos being the same, apparently they’re not because we’re doing something different, and the cars are driving much better.

“I just appreciate the efforts and values of everyone at RCR putting all that in. And so, you know, there’s not a team out there that will outwork us, that’s for sure.”


Starting Line Up by Row
NASCAR Cup Series
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 3/15/2025 @ 03:31 PM Eastern

Driver Date Time Speed
Track Race Record: Joey Logano  03/03/19 2:35:11 154.849

Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
Row 1: 1 71 Michael McDowell Group 1001 Chevrolet 28.883 186.961
2 22 Joey Logano Pennzoil Ultra Premium Ford 28.898 186.864

Row 2: 3 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 28.909 186.793
4 8 Kyle Busch BetMGM Chevrolet 28.933 186.638

Row 3: 5 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 28.934 186.632
6 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 28.936 186.619

Row 4: 7 21 Josh Berry Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 28.939 186.599
8 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 28.944 186.567

Row 5: 9 38 Zane Smith TitleMax Ford 28.946 186.554
10 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 28.950 186.528

Row 6: 11 17 Chris Buescher Smith's/Dasani Ford 28.964 186.438
12 60 Ryan Preece Consumer Cellular Ford 28.967 186.419

Row 7: 13 20 Christopher Bell Interstate Batteries Toyota 28.984 186.310
14 45 Tyler Reddick The Beast Toyota 28.991 186.265

Row 8: 15 11 Denny Hamlin Yahoo! Toyota 28.995 186.239
16 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 29.000 186.207

Row 9: 17 10 Ty Dillon Sea Best Chevrolet 29.019 186.085
18 16 AJ Allmendinger Action Industries Chevrolet 29.020 186.079

Row 10: 19 1 Ross Chastain Kubota Orange Days Sales Event Chevrolet 29.021 186.072
20 23 Bubba Wallace U.S. Air Force Toyota 29.035 185.982

Row 11: 21 4 Noah Gragson Beef A Roo Ford 29.059 185.829
22 3 Austin Dillon Dow MobilityScience Chevrolet 29.068 185.771

Row 12: 23 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 29.082 185.682
24 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Spring Fishing Classic Toyota 29.131 185.370

Row 13: 25 77 Carson Hocevar Delaware Life Chevrolet 29.133 185.357
26 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Ford 29.135 185.344

Row 14: 27 6 Brad Keselowski Castrol Ford 29.149 185.255
28 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # Red Bull Chevrolet 29.185 185.027

Row 15: 29 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 29.191 184.989
30 42 John Hunter Nemechek Backstreet Boys Toyota 29.243 184.660

Row 16: 31 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Real American Beer Chevrolet 29.285 184.395
32 34 Todd Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 29.344 184.024

Row 17: 33 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 29.371 183.855
34 35 Riley Herbst # SunnyD Toyota 29.788 181.281

Row 18: 35 51 Cody Ware Evel Knievel/Parts Plus Ford 30.093 179.444
36 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Pennzoil Ford 0.000 0.000

Did Not Qualify: None.

Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 15 0 Ford 12 0
Toyota 9 0

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series