This is, by his own definition, an “opportunity race” for Michael McDowell on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.
To Front Row Motorsports’ credit, it’s no longer a win-or-bust superspeedway in the big picture of the season and McDowell even competes on downforce tracks these days, including from the pole last weekend at Gateway.
But road courses are still his daily bread and there are only two left in the regular season, Sunday in Sonoma and next month on the Streets of Chicago. There’s also Daytona in August.
Due to more misfortune than pure pace, McDowell faces must-win games to make the Cup Series playoffs again, something he accomplished in 2023 after winning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
At the same time, at 39 years old, McDowell isn’t putting any unnecessary pressure on himself this weekend either.
“These are opportunity weekends for us and we know that, but I think what I’ve learned over the last few years, particularly by having faster cars and being in competition more often, is to just go out and do your job and don’t. Overthink it and don’t put too much extra pressure on yourself, and I think we have a car today that will have a shot at pole,” McDowell said.
He was sixth in practice, but with what amounts to a completely new racetrack due to off-season resurfacing, there’s a lot more data to crunch and variables to work through before the race.
“It’s hard to say in practice simply because not everyone was on the same page as to what they were doing with the tires and whether they were doing a simulated race or a race, and then you add the combination of everyone spending one night. “To digest the data, work on the setups and make changes today, it will be a very different track and the guys will have different race cars today as well,” McDowell said.
“But yesterday I felt like we were close. We had the speed to compete and we just have to get into position, just like in Indy. There we feel strong. I think we qualified fourth or fifth, so we weren’t sitting on pole, but we felt like we had a strong car and obviously in the race it worked that way too. You just have to do it. You just have to put yourself in position and hope you execute all day and everything goes your way.”
It has become a common refrain in the modern Cup Series, but qualifying and track position are extremely important due to the challenges this car faces on road courses. McDowell wants to control the pace of this race like he did in Indianapolis.
“Today is important, for sure, and Saturday qualifying in particular has been very important all year,” McDowell said. “We have seen with this car in particular that it is very important, so wherever we go it is important to qualify well and I am proud of the effort we have made this year. I don’t know the exact number, but I think we’ve made it to the second round 10 times this year, so it’s pretty good. We just have to take advantage of it on Sunday, when necessary.”
And don’t misunderstand what McDowell says about dismissing pressure. It’s not that he doesn’t take the consequences of the weekend seriously. There’s enough out there already that no more incentives need to be given.
He knows what is at stake.
“When I say just do your job and don’t put any extra pressure on it, I think it’s just for me personally because I already put a lot of pressure on myself,” he said. “I’m already there every week, so I think your preparation, your planning and what you’re going to do over the weekend is intensified, but like today, I’ve seen it many times with myself, I’m not saying this is It’s kind of general, but if I just go out and run the lap I know I can run, it’s usually fine.
“If I go out and think about it too much and push myself beyond what I’m capable of, I’ll make a mistake and I’ll be four or five places worse than I would have been if I had done my job well. That’s more of the focus for me.
“It’s not that I don’t feel the pressure, today I feel the pressure to go out and get to the second round and have a chance to get pole, and anything less than that will feel like we missed the mark. I learned with myself that I have the car to do it, I just go out and do my job and everything will be fine and I won’t make any mistakes.”
And if he doesn’t win this weekend, it doesn’t change his sense of pressure or expectations for this season’s remaining races, road courses or otherwise.
“I felt like last week was a big mistake for us, qualifying on pole and having a chance to win that first stage and then turning out on a not-so-good day was a big mistake for us,” he said. “I feel that pressure every weekend and I think it’s great that our racing team is in a place where we can legitimately feel like we can challenge at most, if not all, tracks.
“So for me, Iowa is no different than this weekend. You go in with the same mentality as now. I would say we should win. Mathematically we’re not, but I feel like we’re in a must-win scenario and that’s why we take that approach every weekend. If your car is good enough to do it and you’re in the right position at the right time, like we saw with Austin Cindric last week, you just have to get into position and he did a great job all day. It looked like he wasn’t going to win the race and he rounded the last corner to take the white flag and now he’s locked into the playoffs.
“It can’t be overstated. You just have to take what you can get and put yourself in position week after week and hopefully eventually everything will work out.”
Matt Weaver is a motorsports expert for Sportsnaut. follow him on Twitter.
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