Michael McDowell fires back at Larry McReynolds for Front Row 'low blow'

Front Row Motorsports is in the middle of this antitrust lawsuit, and Michael McDowell was still able to go out and win the pole for Talladega. Usually, all smiles and a happy-go-lucky guy, McDowell had one criticism for those in NASCAR who hit back at his team over the legal action.

Michael McDowell won his sixth pole award this season on Saturday, fifth straight at a superspeedway. This just days after Larry McReynolds went on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and hit back at 23XI, Front Row, and the lawsuit.

In his comments, Larry Mac, characterized Front Row as being “uncompetitive” as if they don’t have a voice based on their results. McDowell did not like that.

“You know, honestly, I tried to stay out of the noise as much as I could this week,” McDowell told Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “Because obviously, I’m moving on next year [to Spire]. I don’t want to be collateral damage in any of this. But I think one of the things that I didn’t love was just Larry Mac’s take on us being the ‘not competitive’ team and why would we have skin in the game or say so. And that’s something I took offense to because I feel like we’re pretty darn competitive.

“This is our sixth pole, yep, we haven’t got to victory lane this year but we’ve been really close. I’m really proud of everybody at Front Row and how competitive we are. So, that was probably the only dagger that cut me deep and cut my guys’ deep, but you know, there’s a lot of noise and we try to ignore it. But that one was, a low blow.”

Michael McDowell has plenty of motivation

Without a win on the season and with criticism like that from Larry Mac, Michael McDowell has motivation. He wants to close out this chapter of his career on a positive note. Winning the most poles in the season will be part of that, and he’s well on his way.

At Sonoma, McDowell was P2. At Chicago, P5. He has struggled with staying in these superspeedway races until the end. Earlier this season at Talladega, McDowell was leading going into the tri-oval when he wrecked. McDowell led the most laps in that race.

Together with Todd Gilliland, McDowell has shown Front Row is on the rise. Next year they will field three teams with Gilliland and Noah Gragson in two of those cars. Zane Smith is the favorite to land that third car. Smith raced for Front Row in the Truck Series, winning a championship together.

Michael McDowell took that Larry Mac criticism personally. Will he be able to follow up the pole award with a win at Talladega, further proving Mac’s words to be hollow?