When Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell won in Indianapolis last year to enter the playoffs, he was hyped up to be a dark horse in the race for the championship. However, he wasn’t quite able to get his name up on the leaderboard and crashed out in the postseason. He then kicked off 2024 with rejuvenated energy. But, as things stand, rogue luck does not appear to be done with him yet.
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In the past six Cup Series races, McDowell has failed to finish in four. The reasons behind the bad streak are all excuses from his point-of-view despite their sensibilities. He told NASCAR on Tuesday, “No doubt, it’s been a rough few weeks, right? Some of them have been my self-inflicted wounds. Some of them have been our self-inflicted wounds from a team and preparation and parts standpoint.”
In last Sunday’s race in Dover, the right-front hub on his Ford Mustang Dark Horse broke off. It was a circumstantial misfortune that could be blamed on nobody. In the previous races at Talladega and Texas, he was gunning for the lead when he crashed out. A strong analyst by nature, McDowell looks at the specific causes of a failure rather than the impact of it.
Which is why, he admits that the Texas wreck was 100% his fault. With the chance to take control of the race towards the end of Stage 2, he was battling Ross Chastain when his car snapped loose and sent him into the barriers. Similar scenes transpired in Talladega when he lost control trying to block the advances of Brad Keselowski in the race’s closing moments.
McDowell’s mental strength isn’t lost despite string of poor results
While McDowell hates giving excuses for why he couldn’t produce a good result, he staunchly believes in having answers. He studies, analyses and figures out where, when and what went wrong in his races. He reiterated to the press that neither he nor his team are in a bad mental space over the streak because they’re aware that they’ve got a good car and just need to clean things up.
“If we can dig ourselves in a hole in four weeks, we can probably dig ourselves out of a hole in five or six — but the hole is getting mighty deep,” he said. “But to be honest with you, that hasn’t been my mindset or our approach all year. Our mindset and approach has been that we need to win a race.” He currently sits 29th in the points table after 11 races. Meanwhile, up next is Kansas.
