Via Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR writer
Michael McDowell always a threat on the roads regardless of the car he drives in NASCAR Cup Series.
He won a Xfinity Series racing for Richard Childress Racing in 2016 at Road America, so he knew he could get it done.
But he has a different feeling this year as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Road America this weekend. And that’s because he’s a threat to finish in the top 10 on the ovals in addition to the road courses.
He finished third in the Cup race earlier this month in Sonoma, following the top 10 at Darlington (seventh) and Charlotte (eighth) in May.
“Sonoma gave us a lot of confidence,” McDowell said. “We’ve made a few changes to be able to win that race at Sonoma, and so if we can take that and build on it and load well at Road America, we’ll got a shot.”
McDowell has the top four in the past nine Cup races and is 21st in the Cup standings. His average result this season is 17.1, which puts him on pace in his first year, where his average finish was above 20.
The Front Row Racing driver’s position reflects the failure to earn race points – he has earned points in just three of 35 races this year – than not finishing in the top 20.
Michael McDowell succeeds in 2022
Before the Nashville race, Michael McDowell had five top 10 finishes in the previous eight races. He discusses how he earned those finishes while not finishing the top 10 in most of the early stages.
It’s just another sign of this team’s steady progress. Going into the season, the team was hoping that NASCAR’s new Next Gen car – and requiring teams to purchase most parts and components from a single supplier rather than teams creating or retrieving sets their own parts and pieces – will create more parity.
“Last year, we started that trend, and that momentum has more and more top 10s, working well,” said McDowell, who won the 2021 Daytona 500. , we hit it.
“And I feel like we’re in a good position. It’s fun. It’s exciting to work really hard for a long time and finally get competitive week in and week out. .”
But McDowell’s team encountered a bit of adversity when captain Drew Blickensderfer left for Stewart-Haas Racing. Blake Harris, Joe Gibbs Racing’s car director Martin Truex Jr.joined the organization in January.
There have been races where McDowell was able to win the race points, but the team pitted against them to make sure they got a spot on the track for the final leg. Some weeks they don’t qualify well and they hang out between 10th and 20th for most of the early stages and it takes a while to get into the top 10.
“Michael is really good at taking care of his things, not hitting the car, not knocking down the wall by trying to run over the wall early,” Harris said. “So I think some of our ending when we don’t have strong days is also a bit attrition.
“All of that explains why you don’t see us heading up the stage as much as we do when we can finish well.”
So is it just the Next Gen car that has raised the team’s achievements?
“It can’t be just that,” McDowell said. “We are building in this direction, running [in the] teens last year and may not have gotten much of the top 10 and top 5, but we’re close to where we are, just performing a little better this year. There are many factors.
“We have really solid people with good Cup experience, and then the new car just brings the playing field closer together.”
That performance (and now confidence) from the Sonoma is the result of the new car. No matter how good a driver is, McDowell said, there’s a limit to how much a driver can do as teams all build different cars, as was the case many years ago.
McDowell believes Next Generation drives better traffic
Michael McDowell is averaging in the top 20 for the first time in his career. He explains why that’s important to him and why he believes these cars circulate better than before.
“I always thought Sonoma would be where I shine and stand out,” says McDowell. “So with all the same brakes, and all the same parts on our cars, containing the same amount of lead, I did what I felt like I could do all the time. via.
“In previous years, going there with a car with a capacity of 100 pounds [of adjustable weight] compared to the cars Hendrick is holding 350 pounds and [I’m] can drop 300 pounds on downforce, and the brakes aren’t great – no matter how good a road racer you are, you won’t be able to keep up. ”
Now McDowell and his team can keep up, even though they know they will still be underrated.
“It’s important to pay attention to where we are,” Harris said. “I don’t want to throw the ball [that we’re] funded in any way, but we don’t have the funding or backing from the factory that your top 24 teams do.
“I’m still standing at any given moment when we’re running in the top 20, we’re beating a handful of guys we probably shouldn’t be.”
Part of that is McDowell and 15 years of Cup driving. Not all of those years were as flashy as McDowell had seasons where his main goal was to qualify for a race and then park early in the event to cash in.
“Michael does a great job of knowing and really preparing for where the track is going, what adjustments, and I can say he’s a super analytical guy,” said the rookie. Todd Gilliland, McDowell’s teammate at Front Row. “I’m sure he knows his car in and out and can set it up himself.”
What McDowell does know is that he’s having a memorable season a year after he won the Daytona 500.
“I feel like we’ve been profitable over the last five years, and this is an extension of that,” McDowell said. “But [this is] Definitely the best season I’ve had. ”
What to watch for
At 4,048 miles long, Road America is NASCAR’s longest road. And that means a “short” race in laps. The stages are 15 rounds, 15 rounds and then 32 rounds on the Cup side.
While there are a lot of angles to getting the job done, it means that strategies will work insofar as the timing comes in. Energy saving? It’s better not to run out of fuel because it can be difficult to get to the tunnel.
It also means a long time to be alerted to drivers and teams to determine strategy (and if you’re watching at home, it’s time to get something to eat or drink). That can be a good or bad thing, as teams can think too hard about their strategy. The vastness of the facility can also lead to radio communication problems.
And then there’s the challenge for NASCAR as the sanctioning agency because it uses cameras placed around the track primarily to identify warnings – and its goal is that warnings are just one or two two rounds.
Think big
There will be a lot of talk about whether Road America should continue in the National Cup as NASCAR considers the possibility of hosting a street course in Chicago.
A few hours apart, it seems natural that if NASCAR wants to add a Chicago street course, then Road America could be the one cut from the schedule.
But that’s a close-up look. Courses will be very different from Road America having more passing opportunities and long straight lines while a street course will likely be a much narrower loop.
And Road America on the 4th of July weekend seems far more relevant than the race in Chicago over the 4th of July weekend, when disruptions for those who stay in the city for the holiday and don’t care The event can make them feel bitter.
The Wisconsin market should be considered an important one because it is a huge fan of NASCAR. At 1,600 campgrounds, no one should think that Road America will break any attendance records (you would need an average of 30 people per campsite to even have 48,000 people there). But the clusters of stands and then the people queuing on the field give the place a great atmosphere, and the 4th of July weekend was the perfect day to race at a limited-opportunity track. of the company because most corporate executives may not want to travel.
If NASCAR wants to get rid of a track, why not bring the Indianapolis Motor Speedway back to an oval shape, especially since the Next Gen seems to perform better on intermediate tracks? NASCAR could move a race from a two-event venue (Kansas? Richmond?) or it could take a year off from Auto Club Speedway in California to begin a project to convert it to an already-delayed half-mile (especially since Clash will take place back to the Colosseum next year).
If Road America didn’t show up on the schedule just because of the Chicago street course, that would be disappointing. If it appears because of the 4,048-mile length that the long warning flags make it a nasty show and/or NASCAR just wants a race with more laps, that would at least make sense.
Social focus
They said it
“Every win is important and special to me because they’re really hard to come by. I don’t take them for granted, so they’re all big in my opinion. They’re too hard to win. won’t appreciate them in a rather high regard.” – Chase Elliott after his victory at Nashville
Bob Pockrass has spent decades in the service of motorsports, including 30 former Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 after working at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Subscribe to the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
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