Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway is shaping up to be one of the most important races of the entire season for the NASCAR Cup Series.
With just two weeks left in the regular season, there are still four playoff spots up for grabs after Austin Dillon ‘crossed the line’ at Richmond and was stripped of his automatic berth.
That could mean even more chaos than usual at the superspeedway of Daytona, where high speeds and big crashes are commonplace. And two unheralded NASCAR drivers put themselves in the best position to steal a win this weekend.
McDowell, Gilliland make qualifying history for Front Row Motorsports
You couldn’t have written a better script to Friday’s qualifying for Front Row Motorsports, which saw its only two full-time drivers in the Cup Series secure the top spots for Saturday’s summer race at Daytona.
Michael McDowell, whose first career win came in the 2021 Daytona 500, cruised to his fourth pole of the season and third straight superspeedway pole with a qualifying time of 49.136 seconds – the best-ever by a Next Gen car at this 2.5-mile track.
Before this season, McDowell has never won the pole in his 16 seasons in the Cup Series. Now he’s behind only Kyle Larson (five) after reaching a blistering top speed of 183.165 mph on Friday.
It was just a hair faster than teammate Todd Gilliland, who clocked in at a top speed of 182.901 mph in his best qualifying run ever at Daytona.
It’s the first front-row sweep ever for Front Row Motorsports, which joined NASCAR full-time in 2005 and has won four races in two decades in the Cup Series entering Saturday’s Coke Zero 400.
The racing team announced earlier this year that Front Row Motorsports will expand to three full-time charters next season, though McDowell won’t be among them as he heads to Spire Motorsports.
Can Front Row break through for 1st win?
While Front Row Motorsports is yet to win a race this season, it’s come agonizingly close.
In April, McDowell won the pole at Talladega and led 36 laps with a lead coming around the final turn. That’s when fellow Ford driver Brad Keselowski made a move to the inside, and a desperate McDowell spun out trying to block him before tumbling to a 31st-place finish.
McDowell also finished second in the road race at Sonoma and fifth in the Chicago Street Race – though he didn’t lead a lap in either. Gilliland led 58 laps at Atlanta, where he finished 26th, and hasn’t finished in the top five this season.
Entering Saturday’s race, both Gilliland (20th) and McDowell (21st) rank outside the top 16 in the points standings. They’ll need a win over the final two weeks to secure a spot in the playoffs.
Daytona qualifying results, NASCAR starting lineup for 2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400
After McDowell and Gilliland, four other Ford drivers helped the manufacturer pull off a clean sweep of the first three rows of Saturday’s race.
Joey Logano, who won the pole of this year’s Daytona 500, will start third Saturday after his should-be win at Richmond was derailed by Dillon two weeks ago.
READ MORE: Elton Sawyer explains why Austin Dillon kept his controversial NASCAR win after playoff exclusion
Ryan Preece, Josh Berry and Chase Briscoe – all teammates at Stewart Haas Racing – round out the top six. William Byron, who won at Daytona in February, is the top Chevrolet in seventh.
Here’s a look at the full qualifying results and starting grid for Saturday’s race, which begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC and ABC:
- Michael McDowell (34) – Front Row Motorsports
- Todd Gilliland (38) – Front Row Motorsports
- Joey Logano (22) – Team Penske
- Ryan Preece (41) – Stewart-Haas Racing
- Josh Berry (4) – Stewart-Haas Racing
- Chase Briscoe (14) – Stewart-Haas Racing
- William Byron (24) – Hendrick Motorsports
- Austin Cindric (2) – Team Penske
- Kyle Larson (5) – Hendrick Motorsports
- Chase Elliott (9) – Hendrick Motorsports
- Kyle Busch (8) – Richard Childress Racing
- Brad Keselowski (6) – RFK Racing
- Chris Buescher (17) – RFK Racing
- Ryan Blaney (12) – Team Penske
- Noah Gragson (10) – Stewart-Haas Racing
- Austin Dillon (3) – Richard Childress Racing
- Martin Truex Jr. (19) – Joe Gibbs Racing
- Bubba Wallace (23) – 23XI Racing
- Denny Hamlin (11) – Joe Gibbs Racing
- Harrison Burton (21) – Wood Brothers Racing
- Alex Bowman (48) – Hendrick Motorsports
- Daniel Suarez (99) – Trackhouse Racing
- Austin Hill (33) – Richard Childress Racing
- Ross Chastain (1) – Trackhouse Racing
- Tyler Reddick (45) – 23XI Racing
- Ty Gibbs (54) – Joe Gibbs Racing
- Christopher Bell (20) – Joe Gibbs Racing
- Daniel Hemric (31) – Kaulig Racing
- Parker Retzlaff (62) – Beard Motorsports
- Zane Smith (71) – Spire Motorsports
- John H. Nemechek (42) – Legacy Motor Club
- Shane Van Gisbergen (16) – Kaulig Racing
- Cody Ware (15) – Rick Ware Racing
- Corey Lajoie (7) – Spire Motorsports
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (47) – JTG Daugherty Racing
- Justin Haley (51) – Rick Ware Racing
- Carson Hocevar (77) – Spire Motorsports
- BJ McLeod (78) – Live Fast Motorsports
- Joey Gase (44) – NY Racing Team
- Erik Jones (43) – Legacy Motor Club