Michael McDowell is the latest race winner in the NASCAR Cup Series after the race at Indianapolis. This automatically places him in the Playoffs, since a race win usually qualifies a driver. With two races remaining, the pressure is mounting to seal the final Playoff berths.

Among them is 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace, who has come close on many occasions, but no cigar.

Before Indianapolis, McDowell was also on the hunt for a Playoff berth and he was in decent form. Recently, he appeared on Denny Hamlin’s podcast, ‘Actions Detrimental’ and admitted that the road was tough.

Michael McDowell gets candid in front of Denny Hamlin

McDowell confessed that the past couple of races have been hard for him and his team. He cited the example 0f the Richmond race, where his car was pretty strong. According to the #34 driver, he spent much of the race in the Top 10, and crew chief Travis Peterson was in fine form as well. He admitted that Peterson made some pretty aggressive calls, which yielded a number of Top 10 finishes this season. Sadly, at Richmond, the stars did not align, and the aggressive tactics were not the right call.

Owing to that, he plummeted down the order to finish outside the Top 20. McDowell told Denny Hamlin on his Podcast, “There’s a lot of factors there, that kind of kept us in the game.”

“Leaving Michigan, we were disappointed, the last two weeks that we gave out so many points. We were only minus 3, and I felt like minus 3 we got a good shot, going into the road courses, going to Daytona. I felt like you want to be plus 20 going to Daytona because anything could happen. To not be in that last lap, this is where its all going to come apart or come together.”

“Its just been a process of figuring out what we can do the maximise just our finish, not what everybody else can do.”

WATCH THIS STORY: Bubba Wallace Insider Urges NASCAR to Respond to Ryan Blaney’s Plea for Help

McDowell acknowledged Bubba Wallace as a threat to his Playoff hopes

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The #34 driver confessed that his run at Michigan was no better, owing to early damage. Nevertheless, the Front Row Motorsports team rallied forth and worked hard to fix the car. McDowell did admit that his finish position was bolstered by rough days in the office for many drivers around him. This included the likes of AJ Allmendinger, Chase Elliott, and many more.

He continued, “We knew Bubba was going to go to Pocono, Michigan, those places. We knew that we have a shot at winning stages and winning the race, these three weeks coming up. We knew it was going to ebb and flow. Bubba did a great job executing those three weeks. He was like 50-something points ahead, we’re like ‘Aww man! We’re going to have to kill it! We’re going to have to crush it to make that up’. The win definitely help eliminate a lot of that stress.”

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