McDowell made his fourth start of the season at the high-banked, super-fast 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway, fresh off his career-best finish of sixth at Salem Speedway in September. The 21-year-old had the potential for top-10 runs in each of his four starts, but none of the tracks that he had been to posed quite the challenge to him as Talladega Superspeedway.
Talladega is a track that is synonymous with speed. Many years ago, before the age of restrictor plates, cars were running there well into the 220-mph range. These days, the ARCA machines have the restrictor plates to keep the speed down, but McDowell did everything he could to keep his speed up on Friday afternoon. McDowell raced inside the top-10 again in the Food World 250 at Talladega and used the help of some well-known friends in the racing world to get all the way up to the fifth spot at the fall of the checkered flag, a new career-best for the young hotshoe.  "It was a pretty exciting weekend," said McDowell. "We tested at Talladega a few weeks ago, but the guys did a great job from where we tested at, because there was no way that we would have qualified if we ran the same speed we did in the test. But we got up to speed, and we raced to a top-five. Talladega was just a whole new learning experience for me.
"We were three wide for a large part of the race and just falling back, back to the front and then just falling back again. It was just a learning process the whole time. At the end we hooked up with [Juan] Montoya and [Mike] Wallace, and we got up to the front on that last restart. We were with a good group and we were pushing along, and it just worked out right there at the end. |
McDowell qualified 14th on Thursday for his first-ever ARCA superspeedway start, which was impressive in its own right. The youngster had never been to the track before, but he would be running the same car that finished sixth at the other restrictor plate track on the circuit, Daytona International Speedway, in February for Eddie Sharp Racing. With talent behind the wheel of a car that had a proven track record, McDowell was hoping for a strong run and was rewarded with his first-ever top-five finish.
 The fifth-place was certainly hard-earned. He was the victim of the draft on a few occasions and slid towards the rear of the field, but he used everything as a learning lesson and made just as many, if not more, passes back through the field. He had worked to close to the top-10 as the race wore on, eventually getting into the top-five as the caution flag waved just a few laps short of the scheduled finish. Officials called for a checkered flag to signify the race’s end due to darkness with McDowell’s number-2 Z-Line Designs/Southern New Hampshire University Dodge for Eddie Sharp Racing in fifth.
"It was just a big learning experience. I was learning who you can work with and who you can’t work with - who you want to go with, and the timing of it all. You are running so close together for so long that it is very intense in the draft."
Drafting will not be much of an issue in his next and final start of the 2006 ARCA RE/MAX Series season on Sunday, October 15th. The Prairie Meadows 250 at the new Iowa Speedway brings McDowell, the ESR team and the rest of the ARCA stars to the brand new facility in Newton, IA, for the series’ first race there. Catch the race live on SPEED at 2:30pm ET. |
McDowell has been tearing up tracks throughout the world for several years in other racing ventures. But now that he has established himself as one of the premier young stars to hit ARCA in recent memory, McDowell will head into the October 6th Food World 250 at Talladega Superspeedway with confidence that his first-ever superspeedway start will be one that he will never forget with the Eddie Sharp Racing team.
Already with strong showings in his first ARCA starts at Milwaukee, Chicago and Salem, McDowell is not fazed by the size and speed of the 2.66-mile high-banked Talladega tri-oval. Instead, he is pumped up for his restrictor-plate track debut in the #2 Z-Line Designs/Southern New Hampshire University Dodge. After a recent successful test at Talladega, McDowell is even more amped for the October 6th event.
 "I’m excited for that race; big time," said McDowell. "It’s one of those tracks that I had always hoped to one day run on, so it was a pretty cool deal to be able to test there. The new pavement was great to run on. Of course, I never had the chance to run on the old pavement. Our main goal was just to get as comfortable in the car as possible and try to figure out the fastest way around there, working with multiple lines.
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"The only downside to the test was that we weren’t allowed to run in any kind of group or draft. We weren’t able to find out how our car was going to handle in the draft or be able to feel how the racing was in the draft, but at least we have an idea of where we are. When we get to the track, we should have a good head start."
McDowell goes into Talladega with plenty of momentum, fresh off his strong showing in the test session and in his most recent start at Salem Speedway on September 16th. McDowell proved that he can get the job done on all types of tracks, as he secured an impressive sixth-place finish at Salem after having strong showings before running into bad luck at Milwaukee and Chicago.
This time out, McDowell will have the chance to run the gamut of asphalt ARCA racetracks in his first four starts. After starting at the intermediate 1-mile track of Milwaukee, McDowell went to the fast 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL. Then at the Salem half-mile, McDowell scored his best finish to date in ARCA. He will be out to add another notch in his belt on October 6th with an impressive superspeedway debut at Talladega.
"Talladega should be a really good weekend for our race team," said team owner Eddie Sharp. "Michael had such a strong finish at Salem, and I think that the momentum the team has will carry on into next weekend’s event at Talladega."
The Food World 250 takes the green flag at 4:30pm CT on October 6th. The race will be broadcast on a same-day taped basis on SPEED at 8pm ET. |
