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Front Row Motorsports' Michael McDowell had one of his favorite racing weekends at Pocono Raceway, earning a top-ten finish that he’s proud of. However, he had a rough qualifying race on Saturday where he earned a disappointing starting position of P25.
Despite the tight start, McDowell managed to work his way up, coming all the way from P25 to sit in the top ten before the checkered flag waved. The #34 Fr8Auction.com Ford Mustang finished P8, but after the top two finishers were disqualified, it advanced from P8 to P6, with Chase Elliot becoming the new winner after finishing third.
Speaking in a post-race interview, the Front Row driver cited how a couple of restarts really helped him to get track position. Despite having good restarts for the most part, Michael McDowell had one hectic one where he was hit in the left rear and stretched them to the last position.
Following a satisfactory finish at the Tricky Triangle, Michael McDowell and his team were proud of their performance over the weekend and the former said:
“It was a good day. I had a couple good restarts that got us track position, then I had one really bad one where we got hit in the left rear and about spun out and went back to last. That hurt us really bad. My guys called a good race and we tried some different strategies to try to get track position. We stayed out on old tires but I felt like if I got a good restart and got into the top 10 I could hold on.”
He added:
“We restarted 16th with no tires and drove up to eighth so I am really proud of that finish. It is still not the day you want.”
After his past two races in Atlanta and New Hampshire, where he scored a P15 and P28 finishes, respectively, this was a sigh of relief for the Ford driver. The P6 finish now marks his seventh top-ten finish of the season and 24th career top-ten finish in 411 starts.
Michael McDowell stands in a must-win position to be in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs
Michael McDowell is still winless with 447 points sitting in 21st place in drivers’ standings, meaning that he is way below the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs cutline. However, he still has a chance to book a spot in the playoffs as there are still five more races remaining until the regular season.
For him to get a ticket to the playoffs, McDowell must secure a win before the regular season ends. NASCAR has already registered 14 winners, which leaves only two spots for non-winners, and the two spots are currently occupied by Ryan Blaney with 676 points and Martin Truex Jr. with 654 points.
Last year, the Phoenix, Arizona native made it to the playoffs after winning the most coveted sports trophy in the history of NASCAR Daytona 500, which was his first career win after being in Cup Series for 14 years.
Since the win, the best Michael McDowell has scored is a third finish, taking a P3 at Talladega in 2021 and another P3 finish at Sonoma on June 12, 2022.
