Can Michael McDowell Bounce Back From Chicago Heartbreak With a Win at Sonoma?

With the way he dominated the first stage and much of the first half of this past Sunday’s Chicago Street Race, leading the first 31 laps of the 75-lap event, it looked like Michael McDowell would go on to claim the win for himself and Spire Motorsports.

Unfortunately, such would not be the case as the driver of the No. 71 Chevrolet suffered a broken throttle cable that not only knocked him out of the lead, but he’d miss the next 20 laps as his crew repaired the throttle in the garage.

What looked like a potential win ended with one of the more disappointing finishes in the Phoenix, Arizona native’s Cup career, as instead of finishing first, he wound up 32^nd in the 37-driver field.

“The throttle cable just broke,” McDowell said. “I don’t know what caused it or how I got to that spot, but that’s what happened. I feel like we had control of the race. I think it would have been a battle (with eventual winner Shane Van Gisbergen), no doubt. I felt like any time I could open a gap on SVG, I could.”

“We were just working on our strategy. We knew we were going to one-stop it, so I was taking care of the tires and doing all the things I could. I was behind the pace car (prior to a restart) and the throttle stuck wide-open.”

“Luckily, I got to the switches fast enough before I ran into something, and then a cable broke after that. It’s just a shame. We had a great No. 71 DePaul Chevrolet.”

But even with the depressing finish at Chicago, the road course ace is hoping to have a promising bounce back in Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway.

“We’ve got some good momentum heading into Sonoma,” McDowell said with confidence.

McDowell Has Been On A Tear of Late At Sonoma

McDowell has 12 career starts at Sonoma. Although he’s never won there, he has two top-five and three top-10 finishes, all in the last three races there: finishing third (2022), seventh (2023), and runner-up to Kyle Larson in last year’s race there.

That kind of performance should give SVG some pause if he hopes to earn a back-to-back win Sunday, and what would be his third win of the season. While this will be van Gisbergen’s first-ever Cup race at Sonoma, he has one prior start there, last year, in the Xfinity Series.

His finish? He won from the pole.

McDowell has just two career Cup wins: the 2021 Daytona 500 and the 2023 Indianapolis Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course (NASCAR went back to racing on the regular 2.5-mile IMS oval for the traditional Brickyard 400 last year).

McDowell enters Sunday’s race in California’s wine country with a 67-race winless streak, but given his last three outings at Sonoma, he’s ready to beat SVG and the rest of the Cup field to the checkered flag.

Plus, McDowell has additional motivation: if he pulls off the win, he’ll qualify for the NASCAR Cup playoffs.

He comes into Sunday 23^rd in the Cup standings, 31points below the 16^th place cutoff line. With seven races left in the 26-race regular season, while he possibly can still qualify for the playoffs on points, a win would guarantee him a playoff berth, and he wouldn’t have to worry about playing catch-up to make the playoffs in the following six races.

“I enjoy Sonoma, and it’s been good for us the last couple years,” McDowell said. “I think we are close (to a win).”

But if he fails to win at Sonoma, McDowell’s playoff hopes have at least one more strong possibility: one more road course opportunity four weeks from now, Watkins Glen International on August 10.