DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Often underrated for his restrictor plate ability, Michael McDowell showed up in form on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway earning a fourth-place finish in the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola.
The finish was a career-best for the Phoenix, Ariz. native in 230 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races. The 32-year-old effort on Saturday night was also a career best for his Leavine Family Racing since their entry into the Cup series in 2011.
“It was a great run for us,” said McDowell. “Really building off the Daytona 500 where we were in the top-five and ran out of gas. We really had a fast car. The boys did a great job. It wasn’t without trouble.
“We have great people. They are relentless. They work hard. Everybody back at the shop. ECR power under the hood, that helps.”
With his first top-10 finish of the year, McDowell earned his fifth career top-10 with four of them coming on the restrictor plate tracks of Daytona or Talladega Superspeedway.
Furthermore, his efforts on Saturday night continue a solid season for the Concord, N.C.-based team who continue to forge forward with limited resources and funding. Still, the team’s seventh’s top-20 and fourth top-15 of the year gives them some much-welcomed attention heading to Kentucky and the remainder of the regular season.
It wasn’t all easy for McDowell on Saturday night, however.
Earlier in the race, the former ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards rookie of the year had to avoid a near-disaster on the track and abruptly took to pit road to avoid any further incident on Lap 49.
Returning to the track in 35, McDowell later found himself involved in the Lap 71 mess when Kyle Busch got turned by his brother Kurt thanks to a tire going down apparently when McDowell and Kyle Busch touched the lap before. Nine other cars were collected in the process.
A solid recovery and racing back towards the top-10, McDowell found himself in the mix again after connecting with Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott on the backstretch on Lap 98 igniting the event’s eighth caution.
On the restart, McDowell with coaching from crew chief Todd Parrott continued to inch forward. From ninth to fifth than to third.
Following a brief red flag to set up NASCAR overtime, McDowell surged ahead and moved into second coming to the white flag lap. Jockeying for position and battling the duo of Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard, McDowell tucked in behind and settled for fourth, earning his first top-10 since last year’s season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“We were around a lot of the carnage out there,” McDowell explained. “There was just a lot of hard racing out there tonight. Three-wide, bumper-to-bumper all night long. It is great to have a top-five. Really excited about that.
“Coming to the white, I thought I might have had a shot at it. But Ricky and I were just too far out and those cars behind us had a big run. Very thankful for the opportunity.”
Despite his hard work on Saturday night, the driver nicknamed Mc Driver by his team maintained 25th in the championship standings heading to Kentucky Speedway next week.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
