How Michael McDowell’s underdog run for the win ended in the wall

Spire Motorsports has one NASCAR Cup Series victory as an organization, but that was almost six years ago. On Sunday at Texas, they started from pole position with Carson Hocevar, but it was veteran Michael McDowell who nearly brought home the hardware for the team in a stunning upset. Instead, his race ended on the back of a tow truck.

“I just really hate it for everyone on this No. 71 Chevrolet,” said McDowell. “We were giving it everything we had there to try to keep track position. Joey [Logano] got a run there, and I tried to block it. I went as far as I think you could probably go. When [Ryan] Blaney slid up in front of me, it just took the air off of it and I just lost the back of it. I still had the fight in me, but I probably should have conceded at that point.

“Just proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports. I know that’s not the day that we wanted, but we had the opportunity to win the race. I’m really proud of everyone at the Hendrick Motorsports engine shop – you guys saw those restarts, the motors were ripping. Just hate that we didn’t get it done, but we knew we had to go for it. We went for it and it didn’t work out.”

McDowell, who has over 500 starts as a Cup Series and shocked the world when he won the 2021 Daytona 500 with Front Row Motorsports. Since then, he collected another victory at the Indianapolis Road Course in 2023, but that was the last time he visited Victory Lane. In the off-season, he joined Spire to help the three-car organization improve its on-track efforts. Well, when crew chief Travis Peterson made the call to take two tires in favor of track position, McDowell almost secured a lot more than a decent finish.

He snatched the lead away from Kyle Larson, fending off all challengers on every restart. He was helped by the fact that the closing laps of the race featured very short runs due to the constant carnage throughout the pack. But when defending series champion Joey Logano finally caught him with four laps to go, McDowell had no intentions of surrounding.

He ran Logano all the way to the apron in a desperate attempt to block, but it wasn’t enough. He fell back to third as Logano’s teammate Ryan Blaney also passed him, but he kept pushing.

That’s when he lost control in the dirty air from Blaney’s car, slamming the outside wall and ending his day. His crew chief put his head in his hands in disbelief as McDowell’s race came to screeching halt. Despite his valiant effort, McDowell leaves Texas with a 26th-place finish.

Photos from Texas – Race