NASCAR notebook: Michael McDowell captures Daytona pole

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.-- Former Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell captured the pole position for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) -- his fourth career pole, but first at the sport's iconic track.

It will be an all Front Row Motorsports front row thanks to McDowell's qualifying lap of 183.165 mph around the 2.5-mile high banks in the No. 34 FRM Ford during Friday evening's Busch Light Pole Qualifying session. His teammate Todd Gilliland will start beside him in the No. 38 FRM Ford -- the two actually posting the exact same time in the first round of qualifying.

Ford Motor Company swept the top six positions in time trials and had seven cars in the top 10 on the Daytona speed chart.

"Qualifying has never been a strength at superspeedways for us (as a team), but racing has," McDowell said with a smile. "We just decided, OK, 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."

Joey Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 winner, will start third in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, followed by Ryan Preece in the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and teammates Josh Berry in the No. 4 SHR Ford and Chase Briscoe in the No. 14 SHR Ford.

This year's Daytona 500 winner William Byron was seventh fastest in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, with Team Penske's Austin Cindric -- the 2022 Daytona 500 winner -- starting from the eighth position. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10.

The starting positions are key for Front Row Motorsports, which is still trying to qualify for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and will need a race win to jump into the 16-driver playoff field with only two races remaining to settle the championship eligibility.

"When it comes to (Saturday) night, we'll do what we always do. We're going to race and help ourselves get to the front and stay in the front and be in good position," McDowell said. "The best thing we can do for our team and ourselves is work together because we have fast cars."

The defending race winner, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing's Chris Buescher, holds a 16-point advantage in 15th place and Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain takes a mere one point lead into Saturday night's race. They will start 13th and 24th, respectively. 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace, who sits just behind Chastain a single point back, will start 18th.

--Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin addressed the media for the first time since he and his team received a massive penalty Thursday after NASCAR ruled his Bristol, Tenn., race-winning engine was not subsequently properly handled according to regulations.

The penalty included the loss of 75 driver and owner championship points -- which drops Hamlin from third place in the standings to sixth place, 103 points behind leader, 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick. Hamlin also lost 10 playoff points and the team was issued a $100,000 fine.

"Each race-winning engine must be inspected by NASCAR once the race team determines that its life cycle is complete," NASCAR shared in its ruling. "In this instance, prior to presenting the engine to NASCAR for inspection, Toyota Racing Development disassembled and rebuilt the No. 11's Bristol-winning race engine. Per the NASCAR Rule Book, this violation results in an L2 penalty to the race team and driver. Toyota Racing Development self-reported this violation."

Toyota Racing Development (TRD) USA came forward and shared with NASCAR that it had "mishandled" the engine by rebuilding it before presenting it to NASCAR.

"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," TRD president David Wilson said. "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."

Even though TRD has accepted blame for the situation, Hamlin allowed that it was a big competitive blow to him. A few days ago, he was fighting for the regular-season championship. Now with the penalty, he is contending for a top-five finish in the standings during a season that includes three victories.

"That's the gut-punch that this format rewards regular-season excellence but it allows you not to have a perfect day and still race for the championship and now I'm kind of back there in the middle," Hamlin said.

--Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs goes into the Saturday night race ranked 14th, 39 points atop the playoff cutoff line. And while he is not completely comfortable with the buffer, he said it does change the strategy somewhat for the race.

Earning stage points becomes more a priority and a good solid finish vs. a big gamble move for victory is something to consider.

"We're looking at the big picture, it's really hard to win one of these," Gibbs said. "And I think at the end of the day, it's down to the luck of the draw what position you are in and where you're at.

"I think you have to play it safe, but it's a hard one because you really just don't know what's going to happen."

--Daniel Suarez said he believes his friend Max Verstappen, the reigning Formula 1 world champion, would be open to racing in NASCAR -- sometime down the road. Verstappen, who leads the F1 standings en route to what would be a third consecutive title, is the longtime partner of Kelly Piquet -- the sister of Suarez's wife, Julia.

"He likes to explore different things and I've talked to him about NASCAR," Suarez said, noting that his own Trackhouse Racing team maintains a "Project 91" entry in various NASCAR Cup Series races for drivers from other motorsports genres.

"Why not, he's like any other good driver. ... if he ever gets the opportunity to do it, he wants to do it right,' Suarez said.

--Martin Truex Jr. said that he expects to be entered in the 2025 Daytona 500 but would not say for which team that would be. Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI Racing has said he would field a car for Truex, but there has not been any sort of official announcement.

--Kaulig Racing announced that Daniel Dye will drive the team's No. 10 Chevrolet full time in the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series. Dye, a 20-year-old Daytona Beach native, begins competing in his first career NASCAR championship run on Sunday, having qualified for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs.