Front Row Motorsports lived up to its name on Friday, locking out the front rowin NASCAR Cup qualifying at Daytona International Speedway.
Michael McDowell beat teammate Todd Gilliland to pole position with a lap of49.136s around the 2.5-mile superspeedway. Both drivers are facing a must-winsituation and led a legion of Fords at the front of the field, sweeping the first threerows.
For McDowell, this is his fourth pole of the season and his third on a drafting track.He had zero poles in the previous 16 years of his Cup career, but is now making themost of FRM's Tier 1 status within the Ford group and a technical alliance with TeamPenske.
"l'm just so proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports," said McDowel. "To haveboth cars on the front row is just amazing. lt's just a testament to how hardeveryone is working. We know we have two shots left here, but this is a big weekendfor us. To have both cars up front is really important. Hopefully, we can stay upfront, control the race, and give ourselves a fighting chance to get into theseplayoffs."
Gilliland was 0.098s shy of earning his first-career pole. Previously, he best startwas third at Talladega."l wanted it extremely bad," he told NBc."We definitely havea car that's fast enough to go win this race tomorrow."
Penske's Joey Logano will start third, followed by the Stewart-Haas trio of RyanPreece, Josh Berry and Chase Briscoe. William Byron was the top-qualifyingChevrolet driver in seventh, breaking up the Blue Oval party. Austin Cindric, KyleLarson, and Chase Elliott filled out the remainder of the top-ten.
Looking at the drivers in the midst of the playoff points battle, Chris Buescher was
the top qualifier in 13th.
