Michael McDowell Has Awful Track Record at Michigan
8 months agoIf you're a MIchael McDowell fan, you're likely not a very big fan of Michigan International Speedway. In 17 career starts in the Irish Hills, McDowell has never finished better than 20th, and in the two Next Gen races he has walked away with results of 28th and 24th. Is there upside for the Front Row Motorsports driver this weekend, though? The No. 34 Ford has shown good speed on intermediate tracks this season, as McDowell came home 10th at Kansas and 16th at Charlotte earlier this year. He also walked away with a 16th-place finish at Indianapolis a few weeks ago, which is a high-horsepower track like Michigan. This weekend, McDowell starts from 17th-place due to the starting lineup being set by the performance metric. He was also 17th-fastest in practice on Saturday, so we could see a career day out of McDowell on Sunday. With that being said, his track history at Michigan doesn't bode well for the Front Row driver, so don't be surprised if he disappoints.
Source: Jayski
Source: Jayski
Michael McDowell Wins Spire Motorsports' First Pole At Las Vegas
2 weeks agoMichael McDowell pulled a big surprise by delivering Spire Motorsports' first pole position for Sunday's Pennzoil 400, while his teammates Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley only qualified 25th and 33rd, respectively. Although McDowell won the most poles last year, that came for a Front Row Motorsports team that was dominating on drafting tracks, and one does not normally expect him to do much on intermediates. Since he only costs $6,100, he might be a tempting DFS selection if you think he's going to hold the lead and score a lot of lap-leader points, but it seems far more likely that outside pole-sitter Joey Logano will pass him immediately, so he will likely lose more points based on place differential than he gains from leading.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference
Is Michael McDowell Worth Rostering For Phoenix DFS Lineups?
3 weeks agoSpire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell earned a starting position of seventh for this week's Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. This start position matches McDowell's highest of his Cup career from the March 2023 Cup event at Phoenix. In 28 races completed at the Arizona track, McDowell has five top-20 finishes, with three of them being scored in the last four Cup events at the site. In practice, McDowell ranked 31st in overall lap averages but surprisingly displayed top-10 speeds in all other categories. McDowell's recent Phoenix history and Spire equipment do show promise to gathering a solid finish, but he does have low upside from his starting position. Overall, McDowell works best as a tournament play likely to have low ownership, who can pay off with a top-10 finish.
Source: DriverAverages.com
Source: DriverAverages.com
Michael McDowell Might Be A Good DFS Play
4 weeks agoFor all the hype Michael McDowell gets as a road-racing pro, Carson Hocevar really showed him up in Austin qualifying on Saturday as Hocevar qualified fourth to McDowell's 16th. Admittedly, that is the best McDowell has ever qualified here and he did finish better than he started in all his previous races except last year, when he had a mechanical DNF. The Spire Motorsports cars did show speed on road courses last year, especially at Watkins Glen, where they managed to place all three cars in the top 10, so McDowell has a possible shot at a top-10 finish. There's definitely a little DFS value, but Hocevar seems a lot more likely to both win and outrun McDowell. McDowell is still a better choice for DFS than Hocevar, even though he is more expensive, specifically because he qualified worse.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference
Switch to Spire Motorsports Ends Michael McDowell's Speed On Superspeedways
1 month agoWhen Michael McDowell left Front Row Motorsports to go to Spire Motorsports, it pretty much instantly ended his run of dominance in drafting track qualifying as Spire's Chevies are significantly slower than FRM's Fords were last year. In fact, Spire seemed to be arguably the slowest multi-car chartered team in the Daytona 500 as the three Spire drivers ran in the back together for much of the race and they didn't have much speed on these tracks last year either. Because of his 27 laps led in last year's race and his weak 24th place qualifying run, he will be a tempting selection for a lot of DFS players but it seems the only reason he had so much speed on those tracks last year was the Ford dominance. Now that he has signed with an uncompetitive team on these tracks, don't expect him to do much.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference
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