Michael McDowell will lead the Cup Series field to the green flag for Sunday afternoon's playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock).
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The Spire Motorsports driver won the pole with a lap of 52.959 seconds. This marks his second pole win of the season and the eighth of his career. McDowell has won the pole three times in the last four trips to Talladega.
MORE: Michael McDowell wins pole, full Talladega qualifying results
"It's something that we've been working really hard at, at Spire Motorsports," McDowell told NBC Sports. "Getting more speed in our superspeedway cars. Really proud to have Carolina Handling on the car for their debut race with us.
"To get a pole is awesome and, yeah, I think everything went right. The cloud did come, the wind did hit just right."
Chase Briscoe qualified second as he pursues his first superspeedway win. He posted a lap of 52.500 seconds.
The rest of the top 10 included Kyle Busch (52.558), Austin Cindric (52.563), Ryan Preece (52.582), Josh Berry (52.614), Christopher Bell (52.660), Ryan Blaney (52.679), Riley Herbst (52.692), and Bubba Wallace (52.694).
Five of the eight playoff drivers failed to advance to the second round of Cup Series qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway.
William Byron qualified 13th with a lap of 52.774 seconds. Joey Logano qualified 16th with a lap of 52.819 seconds. Denny Hamlin qualified 17th with a lap of 52.821 seconds. Kyle Larson qualified 19th with a lap of 52.871 seconds.
Chase Elliott will line up furthest back of the playoff drivers. He qualified 25th with a lap of 52.959 seconds.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the defending winner of the Talladega playoff race, qualified 37th on Saturday afternoon with a lap of 53.430 seconds. This is not a major change from last season when he started 32nd before winning at the Alabama track.
The Cup Series race takes place on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET. NBC and Peacock will provide coverage as drivers battle for the all-important win.
