Michael McDowell will start on the pole Sunday when the NASCAR Cup Series drivers take the green flag for the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
That race is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. EDT and you can watch it on NBC or live stream it on fubo TV (FREE trial) or Peacock (add-on).
This is the second of the three Round of 12 races that make up the NASCAR Cup Series’ postseason. The top eight drivers will advance after next week’s race at Charlotte.
McDowell took his sixth pole of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season as he turned a 52.310 second (183.063 mph) lap in the final round of Saturday’s qualifying session. The Front Row Motorsports driver will be joined by Austin Cindric, a playoff contender, on the front row.
The YellaWood 500 marks the 110th race hosted by Talladega Superspeedway in Cup Series history. The 2.66-mile oval located in Lincoln, Alabama, is known as the largest oval on the NASCAR schedule. With 33 degrees of banking in the turns, 16.5 degrees of banking on the tri-oval, and 3 degrees on the backstretch, drivers have to work together in the draft to succeed. The track first opened in 1969.
Here’s a list of the playoff drivers, including the team, points and deficit to leader.
1, William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports, 3,074
2, Ryan Blaney, Team Penske, 3,068 (-6 points)
3, Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing, 3,068 (-6)
4, Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, 3,058 (-16)
5, Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, 3,051 (-23)
6, Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports, 3,048 (-26)
7, Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports, 3,044 (-30)
8, Joey Logano, Team Penske, 3,044 (-30)
9, Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing, 3,040 (-34)
10, Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Racing, 3,030 (-44)
11, Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing, 3,019 (-55)
12, Austin Cindric, Team Penske, 3,015 (-59)
They are coming off a race at Kansas where Ross Chastain took the lead from Martin Truex Jr. on a restart with 20 laps to go and held off Byron to win for the first time this season. Truex was third in his final season of racing. Blaney was fourth and Ty Gibbs, who like Truex was eliminated from the playoffs a week earlier, was fifth.
Byron is among four Hendrick Motorsports drivers left among the 12 playoff teams.
