LINCOLN, Ala. -- Michael McDowell won the pole for the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in qualifying on Saturday afternoon, posting a lap of 52.310 (183.063 MPH) in the final round to win his fifth-straight pole on a superspeedway and his sixth overall this season. McDowell swept the pole positions in both Talladega races for 2024, did the same at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and also won the pole at Daytona International Speedway in August.
In doing so, McDowell became the first NASCAR Cup Series driver since the mid-1980s to win five-straight poles for superspeedway races. The last to do so was Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, who won six straight between his victory in the 1985 Daytona 500 and the Talladega spring race in 1986.
When pure speed is the name of the game, look no further than the No. 34. 👀 pic.twitter.com/pFLYOnEmdr
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 5, 2024
McDowell will be flanked by Austin Cindric on the outside pole, who will lead all playoff contenders in the Round of 12 to the green flag on Sunday. The three other playoff drivers to qualify inside the top 10 included defending fall Talladega winner Ryan Blaney in fifth, Joey Logano in sixth, and Denny Hamlin -- who made headlines this week when his 23XI Racing team and the Front Row Motorsports team McDowell drives for filed a joint antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR -- in eighth.
The rest of the playoff contenders include Chase Elliott in 11th, Kyle Larson in 12th, Tyler Reddick in 14th, William Byron in 16th, Christopher Bell in 21st, Alex Bowman in 23rd, Daniel Suarez in 31st and Chase Briscoe in 36th.
YellaWood 500 starting lineup
- #34 - Michael McDowell
- #2 - Austin Cindric
- #38 - Todd Gilliland
- #8 - Kyle Busch
- #12 - Ryan Blaney
- #22 - Joey Logano
- #3 - Austin Dillon
- #11 - Denny Hamlin
- #21 - Harrison Burton
- #31 - Daniel Hemric
- #9 - Chase Elliott
- #5 - Kyle Larson
- #6 - Brad Keselowski
- #45 - Tyler Reddick
- #54 - Ty Gibbs
- #24 - William Byron
- #16 - Shane van GIsbergen
- #41 - Ryan Preece
- #4 - Josh Berry (R)
- #17 - Chris Buescher
- #20 - Christopher Bell
- #10 - Noah Gragson
- #48 - Alex Bowman
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
- #13 - A.J. Allmendinger
- #23 - Bubba Wallace
- #1 - Ross Chastain
- #51 - Corey LaJoie
- #42 - John Hunter Nemechek
- #43 - Erik Jones
- #99 - Daniel Suarez
- #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- #62 - Anthony Alfredo
- #15 - Cody Ware
- #7 - Justin Haley
- #14 - Chase Briscoe
- #77 - Carson Hocevar (R)
- #78 - B.J. McLeod
- #71 - Zane Smith (R)
- #44 - J.J. Yeley