INDIANAPOLIS — Michael McDowell made a statement, not only about himself but also the entire Front Row Motorsports organization on Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
You see, the case could be made that the first three victories for the small team owned by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins each had elements of flukiness attached to them. The first came at Talladega in 2013 with David Ragan in a stereotypical superspeedway survival affair. The next came in 2016 when Chris Buescher won a rain-shortened fuel mileage gambit at Pocono.
Even McDowell winning the 2021 Daytona 500, albeit with the recognition that he had become something of a drafting track expert came with a superspeedway asterisk.
Michael McDowell feeling confident after latest win
The Buescher and McDowell wins resulted in first-round playoff eliminations, cementing the victories as nothing more than a Cinderella story, with no significant impact on the season at large. But after leading 54 of 82 laps on a technically challenging road course, McDowell isn’t interested in your glass-slipper narrative this go around.
“Absolutely not,” McDowell said. “I think we’ve been the fastest road course car since the Next-Gen car over the average of it, and I think statistically it’ll show that. I think if you just look at the average finish and you look at average running position, we’ve been a top 5 car every single road course race since this Next-Gen car has come in.”
Accurate.
“Is it a Cinderella story from a lot of different aspects, maybe,” McDowell added. “But off of pure performance, like I feel like we’ve been nailing it. I also look at it like we’re going up against some really big teams with a lot of resources, and to do what we did today was pretty awesome.”
To wit, McDowell and crew chief Travis Peterson went toe-to-toe in lapped traffic with Chase Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson, the most potent road course tandem of the past half-decade and came out the other side victorious.
It’s not like this was a ‘Hail Mary’ either, as McDowell entered the final three week stretch of the regular season three points out of a provisional playoff spot and was poised to compete with several of the top organizations for that spot no matter what.
“We’re going to look at the points because pointing our way in was something we were going to take a lot of pride in, if we could do it, because it shows how consistent we are combined with our performance,” McDowell said.
“It’s no secret that this year is unique (with Elliott and Alex Bowman) missing races, so we’re not saying ‘oh man, look at us,’ but we are saying this is our shot because of those circumstances because those top guys haven’t won yet, and missed races, opening up a window to give us a shot.”
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They still won a race this year before Elliott and Bowman, not to mention all four Stewart-Haas Racing teams, including one of them that McDowell was rumored to have been negotiating with in the No. 10. He’s beat them consistently all year, and that means a great deal.
What also means a great deal is McDowell finally being able to celebrate a Cup win with his wife and five children, something COVID prevented back in 2021, and his promise to them that he would win again and that they could celebrate together as a family.
He literally promised them this would happen, and he never had a doubt.
“So y’all are going to think I’m crazy, which I am; I’m borderline crazy,” McDowell said. “But I believed in all my heart that there’s going to be way more. I always have. I know it sounds crazy. Even when I was start-and-parking, I’m like, ‘There is going to be a day I’m going to win races and win championships, I know it.’
“My mindset hasn’t changed from that. It’s just been a rough road. It’s been tough. I mean, it just is. I won’t allow myself to think anything else because why would I be here. It’s just, when you’ve dedicated your entire life to something, to suck at it is not an option, and it’s just taken me more years than I’ve wanted to not suck at it.”
There will come a day, very soon, for McDowell and Peterson to think about the playoffs. After all, it’s just three weeks away after Watkins Glen and Daytona but team general manager Jerry Freeze says their goal, everyone who works in the Mooresville, North Carolina shop, is working to dismiss the Cinderella narrative.
This new car, the crew that oversees it, and its drivers are rewriting the expectations.
“I think the way the rules have changed and with the NextGen car coming in, it’s really kind of played in that mid-sized team’s favor,” Freeze said. “If you’re doing the right things, you can be competitive. We’ve just got to keep on investing in those areas to try and improve our team and become a more constant top-10 threat and that’s when making the playoffs isn’t such a big story.
“It’s the expectation.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.