Michael McDowell seemed to be beyond elated after scoring his second-ever career win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday. The timing of his win could not have been better as well, sealing his spot in the playoffs with just a couple of races remaining. Heading into the race, there was a growing sentiment among some of the veterans in the sport that NASCAR should perhaps return to the Oval instead of the Road course on the track.
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McDowell, who just won on the road course, seemed to disagree with that sentiment. This was especially unsurprising, considering that since the Next Gen car was introduced last year, the Front Row Motorsports driver has been one of the most dominant drivers on road courses.
Michael McDowell does not agree with the Indy demand by veterans
Talking about the ovals vs road course debate, the FRM driver said that it was, “Lame. There’s the answer.”
Subsequently, he shared his opinion about the argument and stated, “You know me, I’m biased. I want to run on as many road courses as we can.”
“But I do understand the prestigiousness of running the Brickyard and being on the oval. And I do think that this Next-Gen car is going to put on a good race. It’s going to put on a better race than our previous generation car here.”
“I understand wanting to go back to the oval. All I’m asking is can we do both? Can we run the oval and the road course? Is that a possibility? But yeah, we’ll see what happens. They don’t ask me, just so you know.”
This came in the backdrop of several drivers, including Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain wanting to return to the prestigious Oval.
Denny Hamlin and others have called for NASCAR to return to the Ovals
Heading into the weekend, the likes of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Bubba Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft argued that the only way to race at the legendary track was by racing it in the Oval format and not the road course.
Hamlin had mentioned, “Oh yeah, it’s a must for sure. It’s a major, whether you like racing or not… The Brickyard was it just because simply of the historic facility that we are at.”
Echoing a similar sentiment, Busch told the press, “If I’m being selfish, I think many of us drivers, crews, and everything else. We’d rather be coming here and racing around the oval with the prestige and the history of what the oval is.”
Ever since NASCAR brought themselves to this track in 1994, they did race on the Ovals. But after events like the 2008 tire debacle and declining fans in race attendance, NASCAR decided to move into a road course format. But since that did not affect the crowds by much, there have been talks to get back onto the Ovals once again, possibly next year.
