Chevrolets seem to be on a roll during qualifying as of late, as only one Nascar Ford will start within the top five at Watkins Glen for the Cup Series race on Sunday.
That lone Nascar Ford is the No. 34 Mustang of Michael McDowell, who got around the 3.4-mile road course in 70.738 seconds with a top speed of 124.658. His time was the third fastest. For comparison, polesitter Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 posted a 70.477-second lap, and second-place Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Camaro got around the racetrack in 70.516 seconds.
Chris Buescher’s No. 17 Mustang and Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Mustang are the only other two Nascar Ford teams who will start in the top 10, securing seventh and eighth place, respectively.
Puzzling “Silly Season” news out of the Nascar Ford stable this week involves Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Mustang. At the beginning of the 2022 season, Almirola stated that he would retire upon its conclusion. However, he is reconsidering that decision, and may return to the No. 10 Mustang in 2023.
Kimi-Matias Räikkönen, Finnish F1 racer, joins the Cup Series this weekend, and will pilot the No. 91 Nascar Camaro for the one-off race. In fact, seven countries in total will be represented in the Nascar field at Watkins Glen, with drivers hailing from Mexico, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Finland, England and the United States.
It’s also worth noting that once again Ty Gibbs will drive the No. 45 Toyota TRD Camry in place of regular driver Kurt Busch, who has announced he will also miss next weekend’s race at Daytona due to a concussion sustained at Pocono five weeks ago.
The green flag will drop at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 21st.
Pos | Car Number | Driver | Team | Time | Speed | Car |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet | 70.477 | 125.147 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
2 | 5 | Kyle Larson | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 70.516 | 125.078 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
3 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Love's Travel Stops Ford | 70.738 | 124.685 | Ford Mustang |
4 | 24 | William Byron | RaptorTough.com Chevrolet | 70.811 | 124.557 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
5 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | KCMG Chevrolet | 70.837 | 124.511 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
6 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger(i) | Action Industries Chevrolet | 70.98 | 124.26 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
7 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Fastenal Ford | 71.18 | 123.911 | Ford Mustang |
8 | 2 | Austin Cindric # | Menards/Richmond Ford | 71.335 | 123.642 | Ford Mustang |
9 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Princess Cruises Chevrolet | 71.496 | 123.364 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
10 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Snickers Toyota | 71.736 | 122.951 | Toyota TRD Camry |
11 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Chevrolet | 71.2 | 123.876 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
12 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet | 71.215 | 123.85 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
13 | 31 | Justin Haley | LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet | 71.25 | 123.789 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
14 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Ford Performance Racing School Ford | 71.259 | 123.774 | Ford Mustang |
15 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Violet Defense Ford | 71.259 | 123.774 | Ford Mustang |
16 | 45 | Ty Gibbs(i) | Toyota SmartPath Toyota | 71.34 | 123.633 | Toyota TRD Camry |
17 | 15 | Joey Hand | FordPro.com Ford | 71.35 | 123.616 | Ford Mustang |
18 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Worldwide Express Chevrolet | 71.364 | 123.592 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
19 | 38 | Todd Gilliland # | MDStrucking.com Ford | 71.393 | 123.542 | Ford Mustang |
20 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 71.434 | 123.471 | Ford Mustang |
21 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Sugarlands/Ball Park Buns Chevrolet | 71.435 | 123.469 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
22 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota | 71.442 | 123.457 | Toyota TRD Camry |
23 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | SiriusXM Radio Toyota | 71.443 | 123.455 | Toyota TRD Camry |
24 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Busch Light Ford | 71.551 | 123.269 | Ford Mustang |
25 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Reser's Fine Foods Toyota | 71.675 | 123.055 | Toyota TRD Camry |
26 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Wurth Ford | 71.783 | 122.87 | Ford Mustang |
27 | 91 | Kimi Raikkonen | Recogni Chevrolet | 71.824 | 122.8 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
28 | 42 | Ty Dillon | Allegiant Chevrolet | 71.906 | 122.66 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
29 | 41 | Cole Custer | HaasTooling.com Ford | 71.958 | 122.572 | Ford Mustang |
30 | 21 | Harrison Burton # | DEX Imaging Ford | 72.033 | 122.444 | Ford Mustang |
31 | 43 | Erik Jones | FOCUSfactor Chevrolet | 72.359 | 121.892 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
32 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Raze Energy Chevrolet | 72.536 | 121.595 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
33 | 77 | Mike Rockenfeller | Nations Guard Chevrolet | 72.583 | 121.516 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
34 | 27 | Loris Hezemans(i) | Hezeberg Systems Ford | 72.737 | 121.259 | Ford Mustang |
35 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Go Bowling Ford | 72.959 | 120.89 | Ford Mustang |
36 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Hezeberg Systems Toyota | 73.129 | 120.609 | Toyota TRD Camry |
37 | 78 | Kyle Tilley | Brush Creek Valley Farms Ford | 75.126 | 117.403 | Ford Mustang |
38 | 20 | Christopher Bell | DeWalt Toyota | 0 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
39 | 51 | Cody Ware | Nurtec ODT Ford | 0 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver
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Comments
So if McDowell was the top qualifying Ford why are you leading the article with a photo of Lagano’s car? I realize they have similar paint schemes but come on. The number 22 and his name are right there in plain sight. As you correctly stated elsewhere in the article, McDowell drives the 34 car.
Good eye! Unfortunately Nascar does not give me a big pool of photos to draw from so I have to use what few photos I have. I did not have a good establishing shot of the WG racetrack so I used Logano since he was one of the only Ford photos I had. Have a nice day 🙂
Why does this vehicle look more like a Thunderbird and less like a Mustang???
It shows that you can build a new Thunderbird again.