Spire Motorsports' Michael McDowell captured pole position for the seventh time in his career during Saturday's qualifying session for the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It's the first pole for Spire,

Michael McDowell has a fast car on a 1.5-mile NASCAR race track. The Spire Motorsports driver, who is 15th in the Cup Series standings entering Sunday’s race at Las Vegas, won the pole position to lead the field to green for the Pennzoil 400.

Las Vegas is not a place widely known to be connected to Michael McDowell. The 40-year-old is an Arizona native and, in a story familiar to many in the racing world, his career features go-karting