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
April 6, 2025
Michael McDowell outqualified both of his Spire Motorsports teammates on Saturday and starts 10th for Sunday's race at Darlington. His record is very close to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s in that his only two top-10 finishes came in the two attrition-heavy races in 2022, where his average running positions of 18th and 11th were substantially worse than his finishing positions of seventh and sixth. In all likelihood, McDowell will finish worse than he starts and he isn't likely to score either laps led or fastest lap points since he has never led at the track. The difference is McDowell qualified substantially better than Stenhouse and costs $100 more, so he is even less valuable than Stenhouse, who wasn't that valuable himself. He should definitely be avoided.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 30, 2025
Martinville is one of Michael McDowell's worst tracks, as he has never finished better than 14th, posted an average running position better than 18th, or led a lap at the paper clip. But now he has left his long-term home at Front Row Motorsports to switch to Spire Motorsports, where he qualified 15th and did significantly outqualify his teammates Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley, who only qualified 29th and 30th, respectively. Then again, at this stage of his career, he's tending to be faster in qualifying than in the race, so it's hard to imagine him picking up many positions at all. In all likelihood, he will backslide since he usually finishes outside the top 20 here, and even in the Las Vegas race where he won the pole, he fell through the pack quickly. Both McDowell's teammates likely have more value for DFS lineups.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 23, 2025
Spire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell will start 26th for this week's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This will be the first race that McDowell will start outside of the top 20 this season since Atlanta, the second race of the year. In 15 Cup starts at Homestead, McDowell has five top-20 finishes, including four of the last five races at the site. With five races completed this season, McDowell has four top-20 finishes and has nabbed positive Place Differential three times. In practice, McDowell ranked 11th in overall lap averages while displaying top-20 speeds in the five through 15 consecutive lap average categories. Overall, for DFS lineups, McDowell is a decent choice who can compete for a top-20 finish based on his equipment and overall track history. As one of the drivers in the value range based on salary, he is playable in all DFS formats this week.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
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