Michael McDowell reflects on 'Cinderella Story' win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

With his impressive win on the Indy Road Course, Michael McDowell has put an exclamation point on his career season. The NASCAR driver has had a long road to full-time Cup Series racing. Even then, there have been struggles to get to the position that he is in right now.

For Michael McDowell and his Front Row Motorsports team, winning is the ultimate goal. Making the playoffs is part of that. With a chance to point their way into the postseason, this win removes all doubt and worry.

This race featured several drivers on the bubble that happened to find speed this weekend. McDowell not only won the race but fought off Chase Elliott, perhaps the best road course racer in the Cup Series, to do it.

Even though many didn’t see it comes, especially not as dominating as McDowell was, the driver doesn’t see it as a “Cinderella Story.”

“Absolutely not,” McDowell said about it being a Cinderella win. “I think we’ve been the fastest road course car since this Next-Gen car over the average of it, and I think statistically it’ll show that. I think if you just look at the average finish and you look at average running position, we’ve been a top 5 car every single road course race since this Next-Gen car has come in.

“Is it a Cinderella story from a lot of different aspects? Maybe. But off of pure performance, like I feel like we’ve been nailing it and having a shot at it. But I also look at it as like, we’re going up against some really big teams with a lot of resources, and to do what we did today is pretty awesome.”

Michael McDowell knew the numbers were on his side.

Michael McDowell calls his shot, wins at Indy

There aren’t many times drivers and athletes can say they predicted their own success. Calling out a specific win or strong performance is hard enough. However, when McDowell saw the hype Denny Hamlin was giving Chase Elliott, he had to chime in.

Knowing that he had performed well on road courses with the Next Gen car, McDowell felt confident. He had a shot at not just picking up points, but winning at Indy or Watkins Glen.

Michael McDowell felt so confident he went ahead and told Hamlin he was wrong. McDowell would be the one to come out on top when the road course races were through.

When you look at the last two seasons, it is hard to argue with McDowell. In 11 road course races, McDowell has failed to make the top-13 just once. That was the Roval in the 2022 season. Outside of that, he has six top-10s and another top-5 finish in addition to his victory this Sunday. In those 11 races, McDowell has an average finish of 8.3.

Coming into the race, Front Row and Michael McDowell felt good about their chances. They unloaded with speed, kept that speed in qualifying, and then executed during the race to dominate a star-studded field at Indy.