NASCAR can be thankful that Michael McDowell won the Daytona 500.
For the first major race of what they are promoting as “The Best Season Ever,” NASCAR’s current rules package and the inability (or unwillingness) of drivers to pass one another combined to produce one of the most boring Daytona 500s in recent memory. While NASCAR commentators attempted to drum up excitement in the mile after mile after mile of single file racing, anyone watching – including those behind the wheel of their race cars, soon understood that single file racing was going to be the norm.
By the end of the first stage, we saw that what few drivers made the attempt to pull out and pass ended up losing spots. There were a few who gave it the old “college try” (Chase Elliott for one) but soon realized that no one else was going to join them on a second grove and quickly ducked back into line. Sure, there was some exceptions, mostly when the stage breaks were looming and playoff points were on the line, but single file racing was largely the rule.
And so, for those fans who tuned in because they had heard Michael Jordan and Pitbull now owned race teams, if the five hour and forty minute rain delay hadn’t prompted them to change the channel, a lack of competitive racing probably would have. I mean, if you’re tuning in to a race because some rapper owns a team, you’re probably not quite invested enough to watch a race that ends nine hours after it started, especially if it’s basically a high speed equivalent of your morning commute.
Of course, even a boring Daytona 500 is bound to see business pick up on the last lap, right? While 75% of the 2021 installment of the Great American Race would be something you’d just fast-forward through if you’d PVR’d it, the final lap did not disappoint…unless you were Roger Penske.
As the field came down the backstretch for the final time, it seemed as though Penske’s duo of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano would battle for the lead. Logano attempting to win a second Daytona 500 while Keselowski might have been en route to the 500 crown I think we all expect him to eventually win. Meanwhile, there was Michael McDowell in third and about to log another impressive finish on a superspeedway.
If Keselowski or Logano had won it, or one of the usual suspects (Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick), it would have cemented this year’s Daytona 500 as a disastrous way to kick off what NASCAR was trying to market as “the Best Season Ever.” The racing on one of NASCAR’s greatest tracks had been ground down to a typical mile-and-a-half, with a finish you could see a mile away…or rather 70-plus miles away.
While I’d put Denny Hamlin in the same category as expected winners like Keselowski, Logano, Busch and Harvick, his winning the Daytona 500 in 2021 would have at least been historic: the first driver to win three straight Daytona 500s and joining only Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough as having won at least four 500s.
But back to that final lap. A funny thing (well, probably not to Team Penske) happened on the way to the checkered flag. Keselowski and Logano got together, Logano headed low and into the grass, Keselowski darted high and ended up causing a fiery wreck that took out a bunch of the Top 10 cars, including Kyle Busch. (Side note: I am not a Busch fan – at all! – but I was concerned when, in the aftermath of the wreck, the safety crews were rushing to his car. I was relieved to see him climb out of the car.)
As all that was happening, Michael McDowell, Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon found themselves in position to perhaps win the Daytona 500. The question became “When did NASCAR call the caution?” Because there was a moment where Elliott seemed to have passed McDowell.
Had Chase Elliott, NASCAR’s reigning champion and Most Popular Driver, just won the Daytona 500? Had that ever happened before? (Perhaps back in the days of Richard Petty but not in half a century, I’m sure.)
On a personal note, I was almost glad Chase Elliott didn’t win the Daytona 500. Shortly after the racing resumed at 9:30 p.m., (including my Dad, a Bill Elliott who transformed into a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fan who transformed into a Chase Elliott fan) decided they were going to bed. So for the rest of the race, I was torn between cheering for Chase and wanting his Daytona 500 win to wait for another year.
At the same time, I’m always a big fan of new winners, of smaller teams getting a chance to compete on a level playing field with the big-money teams. Michael McDowell and Front Row Motorsports fit both criteria. McDowell was competing in his 358th career Cup start across nine different teams. He was always one of those guys who went to Daytona and Talladega and instead of running in the 20s, he would find himself in the hunt for a Top 5. Front Row Motorsports had but two Cup victories in their entire history (David Ragan at Talladega in 2013 and Chris Buescher at Pocono in 2015).
And so, at 12:15 a.m. on February 15, 2021. I was staring at my TV screen, and asking no one in particular “Wait…did Michael McDowell really just win the Daytona 500?”
As it turned out, instead of a proven multi-time winner for a big time team, a journeyman driver got his long-awaited first win which will serve as a real shot in the arm for Front Row Motorsports.
It was the end result of years of, in McDowell’s own words, “grinding it out,” racing much of it for teams that didn’t have the resources to compete for wins. And in watching his post-race interview with Jamie Little, you could see the emotion take over.
“Daytona 500… Are you kidding me?”
It was not just the reaction to an afternoon and evening of effort in winning a race. It was the realization that while Michael McDowell may not be a Hall of Fame driver. He probably won’t seriously compete for the championship this year. But he will forever be known as a Daytona 500 champion.
And NASCAR can thank Michael McDowell for providing a great story to end an otherwise forgettable Daytona 500. One of NASCAR’s true “good guys” getting the biggest win of his career in the biggest race of the season.
johnmilner.ca 