TALLADEGA, Ala.: Michael McDowell’s knack for superspeedway racing circled front and center in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Throughout the 188-laps fall race, McDowell’s No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang hovered inside the top-10 and during Stage 3, McDowell and spotter Clayton Hughes positioned themselves almost to perfection to take advantage of a restart with two laps to go.
With 5.32 miles left to complete the race, McDowell was prepared to push his Ford Performance teammate Ryan Blaney to the white flag and then settle for his second career NASCAR Cup Series victory of himself, but the Chevrolets of Chase Elliott and Erik Jones connected on the top side creating a four-man race for the final superspeedway race of the season.
Neck-and-neck on the backstretch, a shove from McDowell briefly surged Blaney ahead of the field entering Turn 3. The push, however, came with a consequence which caused the two cars to become unconnected for a split second, stalling their momentum and shifting the energy to the top lane and allowing Elliott to move ahead of the two Fords at the checkered flag.
“You always wish you get a redo,” McDowell said after the race. “Unfortunately, in motorsports you don’t get that. Good to be challenging for wins. When you come up short, it’s disappointing, for sure.
“But felt like the 12 (Blaney) and I were hooked up good, had a good run. Obviously when the 11 (Denny Hamlin) drug back off of me, that was probably my opportunity I needed to drag back off of the 12 a little bit sooner. Just kind of lost a little bit of that momentum, the energy. Just took a little bit too long to rebuild.”
After starting deep in the field, McDowell’s superspeedway craft allowed him to collect his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team their second top-five of the season but a career-high 12th top-10 overall.
Sunday’s effort was McDowell’s second third-place finish this season. In June, he finished third after starting fourth at Sonoma.
“It’s good to be close (to winning),” McDowell added. “It’s been a great season. Really proud of the season we’re having. “Man, come up a car length short of Victory Lane, it’s tough for sure.
As the Blake Harris-led team has shown this season, it doesn’t matter if it is a superspeedway, road course, intermediate or short track, the No. 34 Ford Mustang has been fast and with the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL on deck, McDowell expects to be a contender just as he was in his 24th career Talladega Cup start.
“I think we’ll be able to contend next week, too, when we go to the ROVAL,” he said. “I feel like we’re always strong on the road courses, this year in particular with this Next Gen car.
“We’ve been strong at a lot of racetracks. A lot of races still for us to go that we feel strong at. Homestead test went great.
“I’m proud of Blake Harris and this group. Bob Jenkins has given us all the tools to go out and be competitive. We’re getting to show it each week.”
The 2021 Daytona 500 admitted though he would be disappointed if he didn’t land his Front Row Motorsports team back in Victory Lane before the end of the season at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway on Nov. 6.
“To get through the season and not get a win would be disappointing, for sure,” McDowell insisted.
“I’m proud of the season we’ve had and the run that we put together and everyone did a great job on pit road executing today and getting us track position when we needed it. It’s good to be there at the end and have a shot at it, just disappointed.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
