Michael McDowell wins clean NASCAR Cup race on IMS road course, grabs playoff spot

INDIANAPOLIS – Though it won’t rock the history books in nearly the same way, Michael McDowell’s second NASCAR Cup series victory proved nearly as pivotal as his first more than two years ago.

The veteran driver’s comfortable victory for Front Row Motorsports on Sunday on the IMS road course in the Verizon 200 sealed his spot in this fall’s 10-race playoff stretch, one week after having surrendered the final spot in the 16-entry field to rookie Ty Gibbs by three points with three races to go. The 38-year-old became the 13^th driver in the full-time Cup series field to have won a race this season, earning an automatic bid into the postseason field. With only two races to go, at least one driver will make the playoff field on points, meaning McDowell can rest easier in the final two weeks of the regular season at Watkins Glen and Daytona.

“It’s a dream come true,” said McDowell post-race, whose first win of his Cup career came in the 2021 Daytona 500, where he was unable to celebrate with his wife and family because they weren't able to get to the race. “I’m just so thankful to everybody at Front Row Motorsports. These guys gave me everything. We had the fastest car. I’m so thankful still to be grinding it out in the Cup series, and to put on a performance like this, I don’t know if that was dominant, but it seemed dominant to me.”

Here’s how he did it.

McDowell moves into early lead, takes Stage 1

Likely aided by NASCAR officials’ moving of the restart zone on the 2.439-mile road course back between Turns 12 and 13, allowing the field to spread out before the often-calamitous 90-degree Turn 1 that’s one of NASCAR’s heaviest braking zones on the calendar, the 39-car field made it through Lap 1 clean.

They wouldn’t make it through two, as Joey Logano took too much curb in Turn 6 and slid over into the right side of Justin Haley, sending the No. 31 hurtling toward the tire barrier. Haley kept his car moving, but NASCAR threw the yellow for the repairs needed to the barrier.

After four laps of caution, McDowell maneuvered his way into the lead past the race’s polesitter, Daniel Suarez – who started the day one spot back of McDowell in the points race (18th), just five back of Gibbs and only two back of McDowell.

The pair, along with Chase Elliott, also a playoff hopeful who entered Sunday winless in 2023 and started 3^rd, remained out front for the rest of the initial 15-lap stage, earning 10 (McDowell), 9 (Suarez) and 8 points (Elliott) for their stage finishes. To all three, though, the win Sunday was what mattered most.

Suarez falters in pits, Elliott's charge falls short

Sunday’s standout trio all pitted within the next five laps into the start of Stage 2, with Suarez cycling to the lead, followed by McDowell and Elliott – an order that would remain until the final lap of the stage on Lap 35. There, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski came into the frame, both having not pitted and used the opening caution to stretch their fuel window in hopes of picking up some stage points. With Hamlin comfortably out ahead, Keselowski slipped on old tires, pinning Suarez on the outside of the track in the couple final corners. McDowell took advantage, sliding up from 4^th to 2^nd.

When Hamlin pitted, it was McDowell’s race again. After 10 laps just before the cars dove in for their final stops, Sunday’s race-winner held a 0.65-second gap on Elliott in 2^nd and 1.1-seconds on Suarez in 3^rd. Two laps later, the Mexican driver tapped the Hendrick Motorsports car from behind entering Turn 11, opening the door for Trackhouse’s Suarez to jump back into 2^nd as he attempted to hunt down McDowell still more than 1 second ahead.

All three cars pitted on Lap 49 in a sequence that helped seal the Front Row Motorsports team’s closing-stretch cushion. There, Suarez’s front tire changer ended up with the air hose stuck under the front-left tire after it was changed and let off of the jack, leading to a 24.3-second stop that left him nearly 10 seconds adrift from McDowell when the trio blended back out onto the track and cycled through the final run of stops.

By Lap 55, Elliot sat 3.7 seconds back from McDowell in 2^nd-place, a deficit he would trim to 3 seconds on Lap 59, 2.6 seconds on Lap 67 and 2.1 seconds on Lap 77. The 2020 Cup champion would inch no closer until a last-ditch charge over the final two laps that saw him go 2.1-seconds back to under 0.7 seconds behind as Elliott pulled onto the home stretch awaiting to take the checkered flag. But the Hendrick driver would inch no closer, forced to settle for a runner-up finish in Sunday’s race, leaving him still 80 points out of the playoffs in 19^th after missing seven races in the first half of this season – six of them after he fractured his tibia March 3 in a snowboarding accident.

“I figured we’d have a late-race caution, and I didn’t want to hurt my stuff up, but I got into traffic and started to have to push,” said McDowell, who led 54 laps, of his smooth, relaxed run in the closing stretch as Elliott hunted him down. “I thought we could points our way in, but after the car we had yesterday, I was thinking, ‘We have a good shot to win this.’ I can’t believe it, I’m so thankful.

“Winning the Daytona 500 was one of the coolest moments you could ever have, and I now have my family to come to races I think we can win. We thought we could win this one.”

Playoff picture with two races to go

Kevin Harvick, who finished 23^rd Sunday, sits 14^th in points as the top driver in the standings without a win in 2023, comfortably in the postseason picture, as is Brad Keselowski (20^th on Sunday, 15^th in points). Bubba Wallace now sits on the cutline, 28 points up on Suarez with two races remaining after the 23XI driver’s 18^th-place finish in the fourth road/street race of the year.

Despite his 12^th-place finish Sunday, the rookie Gibbs dropped out of the playoff picture for the time-being, down to 18^th, as McDowell’s win stole a playoff spot away. Gibbs is now 49 points out with two races to go, followed by Elliott.

Last year’s winner on the IMS road course Tyler Reddick finished 4^th Sunday, followed by Elliott’s teammate Alex Bowman, who also remains winless, tied with his teammate 80 points out of the postseason.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Verizon 200: Michael McDowell grabs 2nd NASCAR Cup win at IMS road course