Whenever the NASCAR Cup Series visits a road course in the Next Gen car, Michael McDowell, whose background is road racing, puts his name into consideration as a pre-race favorite. Such was the case this weekend at the repaved Sonoma Raceway.
It was somewhat surprising that McDowell only mustered a 12th-place qualifying effort on Saturday. With blistering speeds — some four seconds faster than last year’s pace — an added emphasis was put on track position this weekend.
In an eventful opening stage, McDowell avoided the chaos, charged to sixth position and earned five stage points. But the No. 34 team got off strategy compared to some of the other frontrunners and pitted after Supercars championship leader Will Brown stalled on the track. That put McDowell deep in the field amid the hornet’s nest.
Soon after the race restarted, Josh Berry blocked Erik Jones entering Turn 11, triggering a multi-car pileup. Four cars spun out and McDowell was pinched against the outside wall. The close calls weren’t over, however, as Austin Cindric and Noah Gragson got turned on Lap 41; the No. 34 car was hit from behind in an accordion effect and hit the tire barriers in the esses. Still, he was credited with finishing the second stage in 16th.
“That really hurt our track position because then we had to come back down pit road and fix the damage and that kind of killed our chances of restarting up front when it did cycle out,” McDowell said. “We were able to get about half of them back before the end of Stage 2, and then in the last stage, we just had to fight really hard to get track position.”
During the final stage, McDowell rallied through the field, taking advantage of the No. 34 car’s long-run speed. He pitted for the final time with 42 laps remaining, the same lap as race leaders Chris Buescher and Martin Truex Jr. Over the last stint of the race, McDowell was among the fastest cars on the track, trailing only Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, both of whom had more than 12 laps fresher tires.
With Truex running out of fuel on the final lap, McDowell took the checkered flag in second position, 4.2 seconds behind Larson.
“I was pushing pretty hard. I don’t know how much more I could have got,” McDowell said. “I needed him to battle with [Truex] a little bit more and [Buescher] because when he came out on new tires, he was just quicker than us. I couldn’t hold him off, but I knew in the long run we could probably balance out and have a little bit of speed.”
The runner-up finish is McDowell’s first-top five finish since cruising to the victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course last August. With Todd Gilliland rounding out the top 10, it’s just the second time Front Row Motorsports put both of its cars inside the top 10 on a track outside of a superspeedway in team history.
“I feel like we had the speed today, which it hurts,” McDowell stated. “It hurts to finish second. We desperately need a win to make the playoffs, but I’m proud of the effort and proud of the speed we had, but just a little bit short.
“It’s great to be disappointed with second, but that’s just the way this playoff format is. A win is so important and we came up a little bit short.”
Despite having improved raw pace from previous seasons, the No. 34 team has lacked results in 2024. McDowell is tied with Joey Logano for a series-high three pole awards through 16 races. The No. 34 team is heating up, however, as McDowell has three top-10 finishes over the last five races.