Spire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell snagged the organization’s first Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
This was McDowell’s seventh career pole in the Cup Series. The No. 71 Chevrolet set the quickest time at 186.961 mph over Team Penske drivers Joey Logano (186.864 mph) and Austin Cindric (186.793 mph).
Kyle Busch (186.638 mph) and Erik Jones (186.632 mph) rounded out the top five.
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Alex Bowman (186.619 mph), Josh Berry (186.599 mph), William Byron (186.567 mph), Zane Smith (186.554 mph) and Kyle Larson (186.528 mph) completed the top 10.
Looking to win his fourth consecutive Cup Series race, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell (186.310 mph) qualified 13th.
Chastain fastest in practice
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain topped the leaderboard in practice at 187.846 mph, besting Bubba Wallace (186.290 mph) and William Byron (186.175 mph).
Kyle Larson (185.982 mph) and Austin Dillon (185.695 mph) rounded out the top five.
MORE: Practice results
Noah Gragson (185.459 mph), Chase Elliott (185.433 mph), Christopher Bell (185.350 mph), Michael McDowell (185.236 mph) and Chris Buescher (185.008 mph) completed the top 10.
The only caution of practice occurred in Group 1 when Ryan Blaney had a right-rear tire go down, causing him to spin and back the No. 12 Ford into the Turn 2 wall. Blaney brought the car back to the garage for his Team Penske crew to evaluate the damage to the rear of the car.
Blaney did not post a qualifying lap as his team decided to repair his primary car instead of going to a backup car for Sunday’s race.
This story will be updated.
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