“I still had the fight in me, but I probably should have conceded at that point.” These depressing words came from Michael McDowell after his disappointing Texas finish. He almost bested race winner Joey Logano with an aggressive block, but his No. 71 car got loose and spun out after getting passed by Ryan Blaney for 2nd. This has been the miserable trend for the Spire Motorsports driver in 2025, failing to clinch a single top-ten finish. However, McDowell has 100,000 reasons to smile ahead of the All-Star Race.

Spire Motorsports, a Chevrolet team, receives technical support in the form of engine supplies and other things from Rick Hendrick. The team has been in the spotlight for its rapid rise, with Carson Hocevar usually dominating headlines following his Rookie of the Year win last season. However, Michael McDowell’s fabulous crew stole the spotlight this weekend.

Lightning-fast speed at Michael McDowell’s pit stop

The 2025 All-Star Race has a few novelties lined up. From the promoter’s caution to an extended time of 250 laps, the exhibition race is sure to send ripples of excitement through the Cup Series grid. Similarly, the Pit Crew Challenge also got a novel tweak. While in the past the Open teams did traditional qualifying, this year they will do a pit stop. Subsequently, they will be eligible for pit-stop competition awards. The pit stop time will determine the order of pit selection and the winner of the pit-stop challenge. Guess which team destroyed this challenge with an unbridled drive? It was none other than Michael McDowell’s No. 71 Spire Motorsports pit crew.

The 71 team took just 12.587 seconds to change four tires, besting the No. 99 Trackhouse pit crew by just 0.013s. That is how Michael McDowell‘s team bagged the $100,000 grand prize on Friday evening’s All-Star Pit Crew Challenge at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Crew members Brandon Chapman (fueler), Dax Hollifield III (jackman), Luke Bussel (tire carrier), Max Marsh (front changer), and Ty Boeck (rear changer) all contributed to the winning stop. After the announcement, they were leaping in joy at the pit stop. While posing with the humongous cash check, the team displayed just how excited it was. NASCAR posted the pit crew’s unbridled emotions in an X post, writing: “A big check for a big pit stop. 🤑”

The No. 71 jackman, Dax Hollifield III, a former Virginia Tech football player, expressed his disbelief at this victory. “Honestly, I’m still trying to pinch myself. I think this is a dream. We’re all rookies. We have half our team, this is our 12th race…We just work on getting better each and every day, and it showed today.” Meanwhile, Michael McDowell will start fourth in the All-Star Open. He will have to finish in the top two to advance to Sunday’s $1 Million race.

Yet his team is paving the way for him. Travis Peterson, crew chief of the No. 71 team, reflected on how the pit crew is relatively new, having been recruited from Rick Hendrick’s roster. “It’s super awesome. I mean, these guys have been growing and developing. They’re one of the youngest crews at Hendrick this year, and we’ve got them. At the beginning of the year, we had to keep getting better, and these guys get better every week, and we’ve started to see the fruits on the race track, too.”

Clearly, Michael McDowell is on a path to redemption with the help of his stellar pit crew. Another Cup Series team in the doldrums is slowly picking itself up.

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A bright ray of light after an overcast period

Quite like Michael McDowell’s misfortunes, another team has been miserable this season. Things have hardly been okay at the RFK Racing No. 6 camp. Brad Keselowski, the 2012 Cup Series champion, has experienced his worst start ever to a season. The 36-time Cup race-winning veteran has yet to crack the top ten in 12 races so far. However, with the All-Star Race looming ahead, things seem to be looking up. During the qualifying session on Friday, Keselowski wheeled his No. 6 Ford in a wildly impressive lap. Posting a total speed of 77.264 MPH, the RFK team owner/driver clinched the pole. What is more>? He was almost one full second faster than the nearest competition!

After securing an endearing start to the All-Star Race, Brad Keselowski did not hold back his happy emotions. Keselowski will be on the pole for the first heat race on Saturday as well. He said in a post-race interview, “Yeah, it’s pretty freaking cool man. To win the pole for the All-Star Race — I’ve never done that. It’s one of the things I’ve never done in my career, and to do it by so much — like nine tenths — it’s a total team effort. The pit crew and [crew chief] Jeremy Bullins and the team gave me a rock-solid car and said, here you go, here’s the ball. I nailed the lap, and just really proud. Really happy for everybody.” Like Michael McDowell’s team, Keselowski’s team also soared, as the team owner hailed his crew: “I think the team is a pretty resilient group.”

This comes with a huge sigh of relief for RFK Racing, who faced yet another setback following the Kansas race after #17 Chris Buescher was disqualified following post-race inspection. NASCAR officials said the #17 exceeded the maximum reinforcement allowed for its front bumper cover. Buescher notched up an 8th place finish in what was looking like a great day for RFK, with Ryan Preece just ahead at 7th and Keselowski running as high as third before crashing out!

Brad K’s North Wilkesboro pole win is a sign that RFK is steadily improving, and with the All-Star race being as gimmicky as ever, who’s to say RFK can’t pull off a momentum-defining victory? With so many redemption stories, excitement levels are also maxing out. Let us see what unfolds in the exhibition race on Sunday.