Can Michael McDowell win a road course in the Next Gen car?
Most underdog teams have to rely on Daytona International Speedway or Talladega Speedway as their tickets to the playoffs. Last year’s Daytona 500 was Michael McDowell’s golden ticket into the playoffs, and Daytona this Saturday will be his last chance to make the 2022 playoff grid.
But with the Next Gen car, McDowell now has more than double the viable winning opportunities with his performance at road courses.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that McDowell is good at them; he came from a road racing background, and he recorded three top-10 finishes at road courses between 2020 and 2021.
That being said, McDowell hasn’t just become a contender for the occasional top 10: he has become a legitimate winning threat at them. Circuit of the Americas has been the one misstep this season for McDowell, as he only spent 26% of the laps inside the top 15. Nevertheless, he was still able to finish strong with a solid 13th-place result.
In the last four road course races, McDowell has been automatic. He has recorded finishes of third, eighth, eighth and sixth at Sonoma Raceway, Road America, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Watkins Glen International, respectively. Even more impressive than his finishes is the fact that he had an average running position inside the top 10 in all four of them.
McDowell is now coming off one of, if not the, best race of his career. He began the weekend at Watkins Glen by qualifying third, his best career starting position that was rewarded by time trials. He then led 14 laps and had an average running position of fourth before he ended up sixth at the finish. In just one weekend, McDowell had his best qualifying effort, his highest average running position in a race and his highest percentage of laps led in a single race. The argument could be made that he was the second-fastest car of the weekend, only behind two-time Watkins Glen winner Chase Elliott.
If McDowell continues to crank out these performances on road courses, one of them will turn into a win at some point. His chances of winning will only go up if a race is run in the rain; McDowell dominated first 15 laps of Sunday that were run in wet conditions, but he was still a top-five car after the track dried up.
If Front Row Motorsports continues to churn out fast road-course cars, McDowell has a chance at recording a second Cup win on one.
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