“It hurts to finish second. We desperately need a win to make the playoffs.” This was how Michael McDowell felt when he came oh so close to winning the race at Sonoma last year with Front Row Motorsports. A win at Daytona 500, followed by another at Brickyard, the veteran driver would’ve wanted to end his stint at FRM on a high. It was hard to believe, but McDowell was jumping ships, and he landed at Spire Motorsports, taking command of the No. 71 Chevy. Leaving a tier-1 Ford partner team to join an ambitious Chevy outfit was indeed a huge gamble, which almost paid off at Texas Motor Speedway.

After a streak of consistent top 20 finishes, a pole in Las Vegas, Michael McDowell finally had the opportunity to make a splash. With 23 laps to go, the Spire Motorsports driver took the lead from Kyle Larson, and it looked as if he was out in the clear, marching towards the start-finish line, but then came another caution and a restart, which allowed Ryan Blaney and Fords to mount pressure on the leader. But he wasn’t out of contention, and he gave his all to keep Blaney at bay. And then came the crash that shattered his hopes for a solid finish.

Michael McDowell knew he had to give it his all

McDowell said post-race, “We were giving it everything we had there to try to keep track position. Joey got a run there. I tried to block it. I went as far as I think you could probably go. And then when Blaney slid up in front of me, he just took the air off of it and I lost the back of it.” He reflects on what could’ve been, “I probably should have conceded at that point. I’m just proud of everybody at Spire Motorsports. I know that’s not the day we wanted, but we had an opportunity to win the race… I just hate we didn’t get it done, but we knew we had to go for it. We went for it and it didn’t work out.”

The incident happened with 4 laps to go when Joey Logano was able to get a run on the #71 car for the lead. Not only that even Blaney threaded the needle to pass McDowell for a third place. The veteran driver was in control as long as he had command of the inside lane, but he wasn’t able to shake off Logano, who made a smart move. In a desperate attempt to keep himself in contention, he even fought back against Blaney, but the bump on Turn 2 and dirty air snapped the #71 Chevy right into the wall.

The Next-Gen car, introduced to level the playing field, has a reputation for being a double-edged sword. Joey Logano, who ultimately won the race, summed it up perfectly: “I don’t think the Cup cars are able to run as high as the Xfinity cars in (Turns) 3 and 4 because the higher you run over there, there’s that one bigger bump just past the center. And I feel like the Cup cars, the bumps, upset us a lot. That’s why you see people crash over there so often.” And that is exactly what happened with McDowell. In fact the likes of Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick and even Kyle Busch all suffered a similar fate. It goes to show how aero-sensitive the Gen 7 cars are.

Spire Motorsports, though heartbroken, held their heads high. They’d gone toe-to-toe with the sport’s best, powered by Hendrick engines that roared on every restart. The Next-Gen car may have bitten them, but McDowell’s fire burns brighter than ever. Carson Hocevar was the one who gave the big brother teams a run for their money in Atlanta, and McDowell did the same in Texas. If Spire continues to build on this momentum, a win and a playoff spot could be well within their reach.

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Did the two tire strategy derail McDowell’s win in Texas?

The #71 team threw everything in the hopes of winning the race on Sunday. With the yellow fever picking up, they made a strategic call to put on two tires during the final round of the pit stops on lap 222, and this, in turn, led to McDoweel starting the race on the front row. Although this strategy was enough to put Kyle Larson in the rear view mirror but as the race progressed, it became too challenging for McDowell to control his ride. Especially with hungry Team Penske Fords charging at him.

It was evident that the two tire strategy had worn out when Logano and Blaney made their way past McDowell. And that was the end of the gamble the #71 pulled off on the pit road. “Obviously, we were on two tires, so we knew it was an uphill battle, but we thought we had a good shot at it. We weren’t the best today, but we were fast enough to put ourselves in position. I was right at the limit, doing everything I could. I haven’t seen the replay, but I felt like I drove him as far down as you could without doing something crazy and dump, and he was still able to get there unfortunately.”

Despite the bitter end to the race in Texas, Michael McDowell is still well within the striking distance of the playoff spot in 20th place and 26 points adrift of the 16th-place driver.