Michael McDowell put together a pole winning lap at Atlanta like a dog with a BeneBone chew toy. (Photo: Ricky Martinez | The Podium Finish)
HAMPTON, Ga. — If Michael McDowell is smiling a lot more these days, he has more than 34 reasons to do so in 2024.
Following a front row start in Monday evening’s 66th DAYTONA 500, the 39-year-old Phoenix native has reaped the benefits of his No. 34 team’s new alliance. Before the start of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, Front Row Motorsports partnered with Team Penske, a longtime Ford Performance stablemate.
The two-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner suddenly finds himself dropping the hammer with ease in his No. 34 BeneBone Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry. One might say it is like a dog pleasantly happy with a BeneBone chew toy.
Admittedly, the DAYTONA 500 was less than stellar for the 17th year Cup racer, placing 36th, 24 laps behind the lead lap contenders. However, the Ambetter Health 400 race weekend has been a lot kinder thus far.
On Saturday afternoon, McDowell won the pole with a time of 30.999 seconds, translating to a speed of 178.844 mph. Namely, McDowell was the only driver to crack below 31 seconds in qualifying.
Ironically, McDowell shares the front row once again with Joey Logano. Unlike last weekend, McDowell will lead the field to the green flag on the opening lap this Sunday versus last Monday evening at Daytona.
Even with the pole position, McDowell was pragmatic in terms of describing the dynamic between Front Row Motorsports and Team Penske.
“We aren’t there yet with how young and early this relationship is, to where we’re able to click on every piece of information that’s going back and forth and builds and all those things,” McDowell said. “So, I think we definitely have gained some very helpful things that have allowed us to increase the performance, but I don’t think we’ll see the true results of what that looks like until we get a few more months down the road. Right now, we’re just literally trying to figure out the internet and tooling.
“I don’t want to paint this picture that these last two weeks have been just because of this potential alliance, it’s really the hard work of everybody at Front Row. I think it’s definitely helped, but I know for sure going forward and going into the future for years to come that this is gonna be a really important part of Ford Performance and our team as well as Team Penske.”
Nevertheless, McDowell has plentiful reasons to be optimistic about his chances to win at Atlanta. Last July, McDowell started 20th and finished fourth in the rain shortened Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart.
Naturally, the easiest observation made with McDowell’s pole position and second front row start in as many races is whether the same front row was something of serendipitous moment.
“I don’t think it’s too much of a coincidence,” McDowell said, dismissing such notion. “I say that just because with both qualifying sessions being a superspeedway and a superspeedway package we sort of knew coming from Daytona that we were gonna have good speed because we showed good speed at Daytona, so not a huge surprise but really cool.
“It’s awesome for everybody, the men and women at Front Row, to come here and sit on the pole, go to Daytona and sit on the front row. It’s a big couple of weeks showing a lot of speed, so I’m really proud of everything. Yes, it is for sure my first career pole in the Cup Series. I’m proud of that, but at the same time it’s more of a testament to the team. This qualifying session you have to execute everything perfectly, but at the same time having a fast race car is what it’s all about, so I’m really proud of my guys.”
There was a driver who won the Atlanta pole and Michael McDowell was his name-o. (Photo: Ricky Martinez | The Podium Finish)
Over the years, Front Row Motorsports’ progress has been steady and noticeable. Originally a team that was merely driving to survive in the tight, competitive confines of Cup racing, the team, founded by Bob Jenkins, has truly become a “rags to riches” story in NASCAR.
“You always hope and you’re always striving for that,” he said. “I think until it started to look more like a reality a few years ago that it was possible that it got everybody re-motivated for Bob more than anything just to continue to invest and continue to help us grow the race team and the program.
“For a while there, you were in that spot where with the old car I don’t think you could ever catch up. Even if you dumped a bunch of money into it, the big teams were developing at such a fast rate that even if you made gains, you still weren’t really closing the gap.”
For all the talk about the limited on track time and short term financial challenges with switching to the Next Gen cars, the Arizonan and his resilient car owner believe in themselves, fully and purely. Now, he is geared up to win his first Cup race of the season.
“I feel like this Next Gen car allowed us to close that gap and that’s also allowed Bob and the team and everybody, the partners, to see that we can do this,” McDowell observed. “We just need a little bit more tools, a little bit more resources to keep it up, so it’s kind of a combination of things, but this is what I’ve always dreamed of. I can’t speak for Bob.
“I think Bob is thrilled with the performance we’ve had and he’s obviously spent a tremendous amount of money in this sport with the hopes of one day being here, but we still have a lot of work to do and we still have a long way to go. I try not to let the highs be too high and the lows be too low because this sport will eat you up and spit you out in a matter of weeks, so we’ll enjoy the moment today, but get prepared for tomorrow and try to execute everything as best we can.”
