May 5, 2025
Michael McDowell is not particularly known for his prowess on intermediate tracks, as he has never finished better than sixth on a non-drafting intermediate, but he improbably had a strong chance to win Sunday's Texas race. Despite qualifying fifth, McDowell did not attract much notice since he was overshadowed by his teammate Carson Hocevar, but he ran in the top 10 for the entirety of Stage 1 and finished ninth before speeding in the pits early in the second stage. However, he made his way back to the front by taking two tires on the caution when Jesse Love spun, restarting the race in second. After a couple more restarts, he shockingly took the lead from Kyle Larson, who had dominated the race. Then he lost and reclaimed the lead from Ryan Blaney on a later restart, but McDowell's chances of winning ended when he crashed with two laps left shortly after Joey Logano and Blaney had passed him, dropping him to 26th.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May 4, 2025
Michael McDowell of Spire Motorsports will start this week's Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway in the fifth position. Sunday will mark the second time ever in McDowell's Cup career that he will start inside the top five at this track. In 26 starts at Texas, McDowell has six top-20 finishes, including three of his last four Cup events at the site. Through 10 races so far in 2025, McDowell has seven top-20 finishes, an average finish of 18.0, and has collected positive Place Differential six times. In practice for this week's race, McDowell ranked 12th in overall lap averages while displaying top-10 speeds in all categories. Although McDowell's practice speeds looked great, he does have low upside from his starting position, and his equipment is not as great as that of other teams. Utilize the No. 71 Chevrolet driver only in tournaments as a low-value contrarian option for DFS this week.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
April 27, 2025
Spire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell will start 14th for this week's race at Talladega Superspeedway, the Jack Link's 500. This will mark the fourth consecutive week this season where McDowell will start a race inside the top 15. In 28 prior Talladega races, McDowell has eight top-20 finishes, including four of the last eight Cup events at the site. In the first nine races of the 2025 season, McDowell has six top-20 finishes, including top-15s at Daytona and Talladega earlier in the year. McDowell's starting position does make him better suited for tournament lineups compared to most in his salary range due to his lower upside. However, McDowell is worth taking a shot due to his overall positive history at tracks that involve drafting.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
April 13, 2025
Short tracks have typically been Michael McDowell's Achilles heel throughout his career but he does seem to have figured something out at Bristol recently with the Next Gen chassis. Although he has still never led a lap here, he started 4th and finished 6th in the 2023 Bristol Night Race and ran in the top ten consistently. In his other three starts with this car, he has finished 11th with three top 15 average running positions. Now this time, he has qualified 13th. Although his two Spire Motorsports teammates Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley both outqualified him and Hocevar will likely outrun him, based on his recent history McDowell seems more likely to maintain his position than Haley. However, he's starting too well to earn many Place Differential points and likely won't be fast enough to lead or collect fastest laps, so he has little DFS value.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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