467th time is the charm: Michael McDowell earns first career Cup Series pole at Atlanta
The starting lineup is set for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400, and once again, it’s Michael McDowell and Joey Logano on the front row.
However, the order is inversed from last week’s Daytona 500, where Logano stole the pole away from McDowell. This time, McDowell stole the pole from Logano as the last car out on track in Saturday’s qualifying session.
Sunday’s race will be McDowell’s first pole position start in 467 races, the longest a driver has ever gone before their first pole position start.
Similar to qualifying for the Daytona 500 last week, Ford flourished and Toyota struggled mightily. Zero Toyotas made the final round of qualifying, with Ford taking up seven of the 10 spots in the final round. Just like in Daytona, Chevrolet was squarely in the middle, with three of their drivers competing for the pole on Saturday.
McDowell’s teammate Todd Gilliland, who led 16 laps in Monday’s Daytona 500, also earned his best career start, clocking in fourth on the time charts just behind Kyle Busch, who was the highest-qualifying Chevy on the day.
McDowell’s pole win at Atlanta is the first pole for Front Row Motorsports in nearly a decade, when Todd Gilliland's father, David Gilliland, won the pole for the Firecracker 400 at Daytona in July 2014.
One of the bigger stories from the session, however, was Erik Jones making a very impressive save, as his No. 43 Camry struggled to get through the turns without getting loose and sliding up the track.
He ultimately ended up qualifying last in 37th, and he’ll have work to do when the green flag flies on Sunday.
The Ambetter Health 400 goes green at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, on Fox, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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