Michael McDowell is enjoying the best season of his NASCAR Cup Series career and looks for it to continue in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET, FOX, SiriusXM).
McDowell opened the year with a win in the Daytona 500 to immediately lock himself into a first-ever playoff berth. But his performance hasn’t eroded too much since the first race of the season with consistent performances and top-10 finishes adding up to what has so far been a successful campaign.
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“It’s been a fun year in that regard,” McDowell said. “Overall competitiveness for Front Row (Motorsports) is obviously up from year’s past and there’s a lot of elements to that. I think that this year with the new schedule that’s helped, having more road courses, but also just executing on those weekends where we know we have a shot to run in the top five and top 10.
“We’ve been able to, so far, execute at all of those, which is great because those are the ones that kind of make or break our season.”
McDowell believes the effort from the organization has been top notch beginning with his crew chief Drew Blickensderfer. Having the veteran calling the shots for the No. 34 Ford team with the level of experience and expertise he brings to the table has provided the spark McDowell believes his team has needed. But it carries beyond just the car McDowell drives.
“I do feel that Drew Blickensderfer is a huge part of our success and a huge part of just building our 34 group in particular, just that right leadership and attitude and just overall leadership,” McDowell explained.
“That’s helped a lot with our group, our core group, but moving Derrick Finley into the competition director role has been a huge part of our success as well, and our technical alliance with Ford and with Roush and the pandemic, honestly, brought the competition closer to us and having some freezes on parts and development and not standardizing everything, but just not having to develop brand new bits and pieces every week. There’s a lot of factors that have brought us to where we’re at now, but it all goes back to people and maximizing people.”
Now McDowell and the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series shifts its attention to the longest race of the season and Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The traditional Memorial Day weekend race is one of if not the most unique events on the overall motorsports calendar. McDowell understands the grueling Sunday affair, that begins in late afternoon and ends at night, will bring changing track conditions and other variables into the equation. However, he is up for the challenge.
“Obviously, Charlotte is a long race, but it’s also a fun weekend and a fun week, so it’s nice to be racing at home,” he said. “There is definitely more that goes on around the 600 than most races, so it’s usually a pretty busy week, but 600 miles at Charlotte is one of those races you look forward to, but you also dread at the same time knowing it could be a very long day.
“I mean, my first year when I got to halfway I could not believe that we were only halfway. I mean, it’s just such a long race, but now we have 400-mile races, we have 500-mile races, but 600 miles is definitely a different league when it comes to just the wear and tear on the team and the pit crew guys and how many pit stops you have to make. We’re obviously pushing our equipment and our engines to the max for that long. It’s sort of a nail-biting race for sure.”
