Upon winning the pole for Sunday’s Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, Michael McDowell received an email detailing what he could and couldn’t say to the media regarding his Front Row Motorsports team owner suing NASCAR over alleged antitrust violations.
Would he read the email to the media in the deadline room?
“No,” McDowell said with a laugh.
McDowell has driven for team owner Bob Jenkins and general manager Jerry Freeze since the 2018 season. He is leaving after the season ends next month but says he does so with a tremendous amount of admiration for them even as they pursue litigation against the league he has raced in for 15 years.
“Bob Jenkins is so dedicated to this sport,” McDowell said. “What I mean by that is, he probably wouldn’t mind me saying this but he has spent millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of his own dollars to be in this sport and to be competitive.
“Nobody does that unless they’re insane or super passionate. Bob is very passionate. He’s passionate about this sport. He’s passionate about our race team and being competitive. It’s been a steady progression and I feel like we’re at a point now where we’re a contender.”
Jenkins has been in the sport since the early 90s, as a partner, and then a full-fledged team owner a decade afterwards. He is a restaurant and fast food franchisee, who had steadily built his team from a start-and-park operation to one that is a fringe contender for race wins.
The lawsuit he and the owners of 23XI Racing claim that the league is monopolistic and illegally enriches itself on the work of the teams that struggle to break even as they compete with NASCAR for sponsorship dollar or in charter negotiations for traditional and new revenue streams.
McDowell offered support for his team owner.
“Like I said, I’m not going to go into the details but I can tell you this for sure is that Bob Jenkins has and continues to spend a tremendous amount of his own money,” McDowell said. “Every time we ask for more and more resources and more cars and more parts and a (Optical Scanning Station) that is all coming out of Bob’s pocket.
“I can’t answer your question all the way but I can answer it enough to know that there is not a team in the garage, and quote me on this, that is more efficient than Front Row Motorsports. Not one team.
“There is nobody spending what we spend and performing how we perform. Nobody. And if he has to spend his own money, there is a problem.”
Jenkins has spent that money, which comes from his other business and a longtime partnership with Love’s Travel Stops, to take a start-and-park team and build it over decades into the 2021 Daytona 500 winner and Indianapolis Motor Speedway winner with McDowell.
And the past four years, they have been in the playoff mix.
“We’re a contender week in and week out,” McDowell said. “They fought really hard to be in the spot that we’re in now, to be as competitive on the racetrack as we are, and then Jerry has been around the sport for a long time. He’s a guy that everybody on our race team leans on when they’re going through good times and bad times and it’s a big family at Front Row.
“It’s not this corporate feel when you walk in. Everybody knows each other’s names. We all know each other’s families. We celebrate the good moments together and we fight through the tough ones. That atmosphere isn’t like that everywhere at every race shop. I think a lot of it has to do with just how Bob and Jerry have gone about their business. We’ve kind of stayed that small, nimble, family feel and they love the sport.
“As far as all the things going on, I mean, I think it just shows like today, how dedicated we are to performing on the track and doing our jobs. The rest will take care of itself.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.