Glendale, Ariz. native Michael McDowell has emerged as one of NASCAR’s top young racers as he prepares for his sophomore campaign in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
As a rookie in the series, McDowell scored five top-10 finishes and 18 top-20 finishes while driving for three different race teams. His best stretch in 2009 came while driving for JTG-Daugherty Racing, in which he earned three top-10 finishes and helped propel himself into contention for a top-10 finish in the Nationwide Series standings. McDowell overcame a lack of sponsorship, competing in 34 of the 35 series races and finished an impressive 13th in the final point standings. He also competed in eight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races for Tommy Baldwin Racing.
McDowell’s first full season in the Nationwide Series was preceded a year-long tenure with Michael Waltrip Racing in the Sprint Cup Series. He ran 20 Sprint Cup Series races in 2008, winning “Rookie of the Race” six times. His best performance came at Richmond after starting 36th and racing his way into the top five before a late race caution forced him to settle for a 20 th-place finish, but his most memorable moment remains a YouTube sensation.
One week after debuting in the Cup Series with a 26th place finish at Martinsville Speedway, he gained national attention for himself and primary sponsor Aaron’s after a terrifying flip in a qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway. His No. 00 Toyota Camry barrel-rolled ten times and came to a stop on the track’s apron when it then erupted in flames. He walked away from the wreckage under his own power and walked into a world of superstardom: stops on NBC’s The Today Show and the syndicated Ellen Degeneres Show awaited him as his fan base immediately grew, making McDowell NASCAR’s newest cult hero.
Prior to his NASCAR career, McDowell was most well-known for his lights-out performance in the ARCA Series.
The 25-year-old racer climbed to top of the short track racing world by contending for the 2007 ARCA championship in his first full season of stock car racing. Piloting the No. 2 Eddie Sharp Racing Dodge, he scored four wins and nine poles and finished second in the series title hunt. His Rookie of the Year Award was a mere formality.
His road to the top level of stock car racing was certainly unorthodox.
McDowell established himself on the international racing stage, becoming the first Junior American to ever podium in an International Competition CIK-FIA sanctioned event. The next logical step for McDowell proved to be the Star Mazda Series. Driving directly into the racing limelight, he took the series by storm in 2003, finishing in second place overall and earning Rookie of the Year honors. McDowell continued his domination in 2004 by winning seven out of ten races on the way to becoming the Star Mazda North American Champion.
In 2005, McDowell co-drove the No. 19 Make-A-Wish Daytona Prototype with Champ Car veteran Memo Gidley. The duo finished sixth in the Rolex Sports Car Series Championship and, together, gave Finlay Motorsports its first victory in Mexico City. With that win, McDowell became at that time the youngest driver ever to finish on the podium of a Rolex Series race with his runner-up finish at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, and was the first driver since Mario Andretti in 1975 to run both a major open-wheel race and a sports car race in the same weekend. If that was not enough, McDowell also co-drove the No. 60 Finlay Motorsports M3 entry in the Grand-Am Cup Series with team owner Rob Finlay, scoring a podium finishes at Daytona.
McDowell again competed in the Rolex Series and the Grand-Am Cup Series in 2006 for the Mooresville, North Carolina-based Finlay Motorsports team. Co-driving once again with Gidley, the duo finished an impressive fourth in the Rolex Series Championship with 1 win and 11 top-ten finishes. He also co-drove the No. 15 Ford Mustang with Finlay, scoring three podium finishes including a win at Barber Motorsports Park. His success in the sports car ranks did not go unnoticed as Eddie Sharp Racing put the talented McDowell behind the wheel of his car for five races.
Following the conclusion of the 2007 ARCA Series season, McDowell finished off the year by running his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Martinsville and then the remaining Busch Series events for Michael Waltrip Racing at Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead.
