Michael McDowell 1-on-1: On two big wins, playoff push, lame duck Front Row season

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Michael McDowell enters the Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend having won the last time Cup cars raced at the facility.

But to call him the defending winner wouldn’t be accurate as he won the 2023 race on the IMS road course (which includes part of the oval) while the Cup event returns to the oval in 2024 for the first Brickyard 400 in four years.

McDowell, known for his prowess on road courses, faces a must-win situation over the final five races of the regular season to make the playoffs as he sits 22nd in the Cup standings. He’s been in this position in the past, and last year got the win he needed.

That win at Indianapolis was his second Cup win. His first came in the 2021 Daytona 500 in career start 358. He now has two Cup wins in 486 starts. That sounds like a career.

But it was announced in May that McDowell would leave Front Row Motorsports for Spire Motorsports after this season. McDowell talked with FOX Sports about the pressure of being in a must-win situation, announcing his move (which includes a change in manufacturer from Ford to Chevrolet) so early, having won at two of the sports’ most iconic tracks and doing it all while having five kids at home.

You’re in pretty much a must-win situation. That’s nothing new for you. But what’s it like to be in it? Does it get any easier with time?

No, I don’t think it gets easier with time. You know the pressure to get into playoffs and what it means. I think the fact that we’ve done it a few times now just keeps the motivation and hope alive that it can be done. And we’ve had fast cars this year. So I feel like we still have great opportunities to win and we’ve got good racetracks in front of us. We’ve missed some opportunities. But every week you feel that pressure to go out and win.

Are you still lobbying at all for Indy to be on the road course?

It’s kind of a mix for me. Obviously, winning there last year at Indy, I wouldn’t want to go back to the oval. But I really understand the history and value racing on the oval. I wish we did both. But I’m excited. I’m excited about going to Indianapolis and racing on the Brickyard on the oval again. This car has done really well on those styles of racetracks. And I feel like, again, it’s another opportunity race weekend, I have a decent amount of seat time compared to a lot of guys that haven’t been there. I feel good about our chances.

You made the 2025 decision so early. And some people are like, “Oh, man, I wouldn’t announce that until August or September.” You still feel like it was the right thing to do to announce it once you knew what you were doing next year?

Well, I felt good about signing early because you guys have seen it’s been a crazy silly season with so many drivers flooding the market and SHR [closing]. There’s so much of that I got in front of. As far as announcing it goes, that was really a decision that Front Row wanted to make. I was good waiting until later in the season, but they wanted to get in front of it to try to lock down their next driver and obviously they had plans for that charter and different things. That wasn’t really my plan. That was more theirs. It’s one of those deals that you deal with. It’s not all unicorns and rainbows, but it’s going fine.

How has it been? Have you been getting only 80 percent of the information?

I feel like maybe 10 percent of the information. It’s been tough, there’s no doubt about it. It’s not just one thing or one person or one entity. There’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of factors. It’s not ideal, but we knew it was going to be tough going into it.

You have five kids to distract you, right?

Yeah [laughs]. We’ve been still performing well and feel like we still have shots to win races, and we’re still fighting hard. Everybody’s still hammer down, it’s just a little bit tougher than it was a few months ago. 

I did want to ask. There aren’t many drivers who have five kids?

It’s crazy. That’s a lot of kids.

What’s life like? 

It’s busy. My wife really does most of the heavy lifting. I’m here this weekend ready to go [at the Chicago road course] and she’s holding down the fort back home. But it’s something that we’ve learned to adapt to. Our kids are used to being on the road traveling. It’s their life, too. We wouldn’t change it. It wasn’t necessarily the plan we had in the beginning. But now we’re here and we enjoy it and take in every moment.

You realize you’re going to have four teenagers at one point?

I know. It’s crazy. I’m getting close there. Yeah, my oldest is 15 and got his permit and started driving. It’s all happening fast.

Are you ready for that? Like, is that more stressful than trying to make the playoffs?

I am super controlling. And I thought it was going to be tough, but he does such a good job. It’s been really easy. He’s done good. I haven’t had to freak out at all.

What about parenting knowing you will have four teenagers?

It just helps you prepare for stressful moments like trying to make the playoffs.

You look back at your career, and it’s just all stressful moments. Whether it’s the stress of making a race versus the stress of trying to help build a race team. What’s allowed you to deal with those stresses? 

Honestly, I would say my faith. it really is. Because at the end of the day, I feel like you work as hard as you can, you treat people fairly and you try to do — and you don’t always hit it right — you just try to do right by people. And you leave the results up to God. It’s not up to you. You fight hard, you push hard, you do all those things. But there’s so many scenarios that I couldn’t control or couldn’t change. And so you just learn to hold things loosely while fighting hard, if that makes sense. I feel like, at the end of the day, you just show up prepared, you work as hard as you can, you do all the things you can, do right by people, and you see where the results stack up.

You’ve won two races in Cup — two of the biggest races as well. What’s it like when you look back and say, “I won a Daytona 500. And I won at Indianapolis?”

It’s awesome. And I think I’m just getting started, I really do. Where I’m at in my career and how well it’s been going, I don’t look at those two races as that’s it. I feel like there’s more wins on the horizon. And if there’s not, like we just talked about, those are good ones to have. They mean a lot, and it makes a career, there’s no doubt about it. But I feel like we’re just in a really good spot and we have more opportunities in front of us. Even though it’s taken me so long to get here, I feel like these last three or four years have been like the beginning of my career, not the end of it.

How did winning Daytona kind of change your life if at all? Or how people look at you? And then how did winning Indy change it?

Daytona, you’re never going to top it. It’s just awesome and an incredible win. And just what it did for our race team and all the things that come along with it with making the playoffs and more support from Ford and all the things that came along making it into the playoffs was really important for our race team. But I feel like how we ran after winning the Daytona 500 weekly and consistently and how much our program improved was what set us up for that Indy win. It took a few years, but the Daytona 500 is what kicked us off to say, “Hey, we can do this, and let’s make the investment and let’s get some more tools and more resources.” And we really started building towards where we’re at now. It was the motivator. It was the kickstarter. And then winning at Indy the way we did last year was just validation of where we are as a race team in how fast our cars are and the speed that we had. It wasn’t a fluke win. It wasn’t a superspeedway win. It wasn’t a strategy, caution-filled — it was actually the opposite. It was a flat out who’s the fastest today. And for us to bring the fastest race car to the racetrack is a testament to how far Front Row has come.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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