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Michael McDowell reacts after airborne crash at Daytona: 'I closed my eyes'

Nick Profile Picby:Nick Geddes•08/25/24•

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Michael McDowell
Nigel Cook/News-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Michael McDowell entered Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona in need of a win to make the playoffs and with less than 10 laps to go, his No. 34 Ford was out in front.

But at Daytona, the only thing that’s guaranteed is there will be chaos. Unfortunately for McDowell, he found himself involved in the “big one” on Lap 151. Austin Cindric made contact with McDowell in Turn 2, sending his car flying through the air. McDowell slammed into the front end of Joey Logano, ending his bid of winning at Daytona.

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It was a violent hit for McDowell, who said afterwards he closed his eyes and hoped for the best.

Michael McDowell falls short at Daytona after the ‘big one’ strikes

“I’m fine. I don’t know what it looked like. I closed my eyes,” McDowell said, via Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “Anytime you get turned in front of the field while leading it, you know somebody is gonna hit you. There’s no way you’re getting out of it. I’m just bummed. We had a really fast Long John Silver Ford Mustang. I’m really proud of everybody at Front Row. We had a ton of speed with both cars this weekend and with a few laps to go we put ourselves in position to win the race and that’s what we wanted to do. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to the end and that’s part of this racing.

“I haven’t watched it in detail to know exactly what happened, so I don’t want to throw any opinions out there because Lord knows that I’ve made plenty of mistakes at superspeedways and I want to make sure it wasn’t me. But I felt like I got turned getting down into turn one. The wrong angle at the wrong time, but Austin was doing a great job of pushing me. We had a good run and you’re at the end of these races, so I’m not faulting him. We were trying to do what we could.”

It was a disappointing end to a solid night for McDowell up to that point. He started on the pole and led 27 laps, routinely racing near the front of the pack. He now heads to Darlington next Sunday in another must-win situation.