Michael McDowell masterful in Indianapolis

When Michael McDowell scored his first career NASCAR Cup Series win at the 2021 Daytona 500, it came after slipping through a massive wreck on the final lap and holding a narrow advantage over Chase Elliott when the caution came out. Over two years later, McDowell beat Elliott and the field on raw speed alone as he navigated Indianapolis Motor Speedway‘s infield road course at a blistering pace to clinch a playoff spot.

McDowell led a race-high 54 of 82 laps, beginning the day with his maiden stage victory followed by runner-up in Stage #2 to Denny Hamlin. With road courses not having cautions between stages and the race being clean for the most part, pit strategy played a major role as McDowell opted to pit fifteen laps before Hamlin which allowed him to cycle back into the lead after Hamlin made his stop.

Although Elliott tried to catch up, he could not get anywhere near McDowell’s #34. The win is Front Row Motorsports‘ fourth and second outside of a superspeedway, but the only other non-plate win (Pocono in 2016 with Chris Buescher) was due to the race being shortened by fog.

“To win the Daytona 500, there’s not a lot of things that can top that. But this is a close second, and to have my family here with me, it’s very special,” said McDowell. “Obviously they couldn’t be there at Daytona (due to COVID-19 policies), and that was tough. But at the same time, we’ve been building and building at Front Row Motorsports and felt like we would have another opportunity to win a race, and I’m not going to lie, we cherry pick as a family which races we go to. We go to the ones that we think we can win, and we talk about it. We do, we talk about it as a family, like all right, we’re all going to be there, this is the weekend.

“If it didn’t happen this weekend, we’d go to Watkins Glen and say, ‘Aright, guys, this is the weekend.’ To have it all come together, it’s super special.”

McDowell had been straddling the playoff cut line, holding the sixteenth and final playoff spot entering Indianapolis. Elliott needs a win to qualify as he missed seven races due to injury and suspension, leaving him too far back to make it on points with just two races remaining.

Fortunately for Elliott, he figures to be the favourite entering Watkins Glen as a two-time winner there and leads all active drivers in road course victories with seven.

“I lost too much ground under that pit cycle and was trying to pace myself for the long haul,” Elliott explained. “It kind of had that green flag feel. I thought I did that, just needed to do a better job getting through traffic there.”

Aided by the aforementioned lack of stage breaks and single-car spins not being enough to merit one, the only caution of the race came on lap three when Justin Haley was hit by Joey Logano and sent into the tyre barrier. The Cup Series’ last race with just a single yellow flag was at Fontana in 2012, which was shortened by rain, while the caution-free 2002 Talladega fall race ran in its entirety.

The late Marvin Burke remains the only driver with a perfect record in the Cup Series after Chicago winner Shane van Gisbergen finished tenth in his second career start. The finish came two days after finishing nineteenth in his maiden Truck race (he switched from Cup to Truck points for the start as Cup drivers cannot enter the latter’s playoff rounds).

His Supercars Championship rival and current points leader Brodie Kostecki was twenty-second after starting at the back due to a qualifying crash. 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Mike Rockenfeller and Kamui Kobayashi respectively placed twenty-fourth and thirty-third, the latter having been punted by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in turn one. Jenson Button, who teamed up with Rockenfeller and his team owner Jimmie Johnson for NASCAR’s Le Mans entry in June, finished twenty-eighth; Button was also spun by Stenhouse, interestingly meaning the latter had taken out two Formula One alumni.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	4	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	82	Running
2	3	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	82	Running
3	1	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	82	Running
4	2	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	82	Running
5	9	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	82	Running
6	13	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	82	Running
7	12	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	82	Running
8	6	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	82	Running
9	7	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	82	Running
10	8	91	Shane Van Gisbergen*	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	82	Running
11	17	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	82	Running
12	10	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	82	Running
13	16	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	82	Running
14	39	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	82	Running
15	20	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	82	Running
16	27	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	82	Running
17	21	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	82	Running
18	19	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	82	Running
19	25	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	82	Running
20	22	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	82	Running
21	24	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	82	Running
22	11	33	Brodie Kostecki	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	82	Running
23	38	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	81	Running
24	37	42	Mike Rockenfeller	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	81	Running
25	34	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	81	Running
26	26	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	81	Running
27	35	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	81	Running
28	31	15	Jenson Button	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	81	Running
29	14	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	81	Running
30	29	51	Andy Lally	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	81	Running
31	30	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	81	Running
32	32	78	Josh Bilicki*	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	81	Running
33	28	67	Kamui Kobayashi*	23XI Racing	Toyota	81	Running
34	18	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	81	Running
35	36	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	81	Running
36	5	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	80	Running
37	23	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	80	Running
38	15	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	80	Running
39	33	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	79	Running