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NASCAR Cup Series For Coke Zero Sugar 400: Qualifying, Michael McDowell’s Pole Position, Lineup At Daytona International Speedway
By Jeff Hawkins,
5 hours ago
Michael McDowell on Friday returned to Daytona International Speedway, the site of his top NASCAR Cup Series accomplishment and created a footnote to his career.
The 2021 Daytona 500 champion cruised to a pole position for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400. It will be his first start on the inside of the front row at the 2.5-mile, high-banked track.
“Qualifying has never been a strength at superspeedways for us (as a team) but racing has,” McDowell said, as reported by NASCAR.com. “We just decided, okay, we are going to take as much time as we possibly have available to execute everything we can to the best of our ability.
“We just proved to ourselves with a lot of extra time put in, it has paid off.”
The Front Row Motorsports pilot secured the prime starting spot after posting a hot lap of 183.165 mph. McDowell will be joined at the front of the pack by teammate Todd Gilliland, who placed second. On the inside of the second row, Joey Logano will start next to Ryan Preece and, in the third row, Stewart-Haas Racing garagemates Josh Berry joins Chase Briscoe as Fords swept the top six spots.
With two regular-season races remaining, Chris Buescher, the event’s defending champion, is attempting to hold on to his playoff chances without a race win. Ranked No. 15, Buescher leads Ross Chastain by 15 points and Bubba Wallace, the first driver out of postseason contention, trails Chastain by one point.
Denny Hamlin Penalty Dooms Regular-Season Title Bid
NASCAR officials levied a penalty against Toyota Racing Development (TRD) and Joe Gibbs Racing on Thursday after an investigation revealed an engine violation on Denny Hamlin’s machine.
NASCAR cut 75 regular season points and 10 playoff points from both Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing after TRD erred with logistics.
TRD President David Wilson issued a statement: “As the engine builder for our partner NASCAR Cup Series teams, TRD is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre- and post-race. Despite procedures being in place, Denny’s race-winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly returned to our Costa Mesa facility, disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR per the rulebook.
“Although we know with absolute certainty that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine.”
The docked points effectively eliminated the No. 11 Toyota team from regular-season championship contention, falling from third to sixth in the points standings. Entering Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, Hamlin trails circuit leader Tyler Reddick by 103 points.
Starting Lineup for NASCAR Cup Series’ Coke Zero Sugar 400
Here is a look at the lineup for Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series’ Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway:
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