Top Dog: Michael McDowell
Following an impressive third-place run at Sonoma Raceway, I spoke with Michael McDowell about his past two months, which have produced a string of strong results.
When asked about his chances to win a race before the playoffs, McDowell immediately pointed to Road America as one of the prime tracks for him to cash in. After all, McDowell won an Xfinity race there in 2016.
At the Kwik Trip 250 at the Elkhart Lake, Wisc. track (July 3), McDowell nearly broke through for that elusive win on the 2022 campaign. It started out with a strong qualifying session, which featured McDowell in sixth at the end of the session.
McDowell quickly cracked the top five and remained there for most of the stage one before getting passed by Austin Cindric. In a strategy to gain track position for stage two, crew chief Blake Harris called the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford to the pits, resulting in McDowell finishing 16th in the stage.
Stage two was fairly deja vu for McDowell, with the luminescent yellow and red machine running laps inside the top five once again before pitting before the pits closed at the end of the stage.
The final stage was more of the same from the 37-year-old. He was solidly inside the top 10 running as high as sixth, but just wasn’t quite as quick as the leading contenders. Once the final green flag stops cycled through, McDowell fought his way from outside the top 10 to earn an eighth-place finish. The result continues to stretch out McDowell’s career high in top 10s. Additionally, McDowell’s seven top 10s this year are tied for 10th in the series. Not bad for a guy who struggled to find a full-time ride just a few short years ago.
in the interview with McDowell, he mentioned how winning was so important, and despite the surge of momentum, he practically needs to win to have a shot at the playoffs. 18 races into the season which has already featured 13 winners, McDowell sits 21st in points, 115 points behind Christopher Bell for the last playoff spot.
Win or no win, Front Row Motorsports is beginning to develop into one of the top Ford teams. McDowell has consistently run with or outpaced the Stewart-Haas Racing cars, a team that has two titles to its name since its inception in 2009.
The possibilities of a McDowell victory are not far out in the ocean either. The series’ next stop is Atlanta Motor Speedway, a track whose most recent visit displayed superspeedway-style racing. It just so happens that…
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