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McDowell Ready To Make A Quick Leap To Sprint Cup
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Published: March 26, 2008
He gained international attention in go-karts, raced sports cars in the Grand Am Series and drove in a few Champ Car races for Paul Gentilozzi.
Michael McDowell is still an unknown to most NASCAR followers, but Michael Waltrip is so high on the 23-year-old road racing ace he is bringing him straight to the Sprint Cup series this weekend at Martinsville, Va.
"No matter where we've taken him, he's come through," Waltrip said. "He puts in miles, he gives good feedback, he's fast and he doesn't run into anything. He just learns."
McDowell takes over for 1999 Cup champion Dale Jarrett, who ran his final points race March 16 at Bristol. Because Zephyrhills' David Reutimann is getting Jarrett's UPS sponsorship and No..44, McDowell will carry Reutimann's old No..00.
Set on building with young drivers, Waltrip is gambling on one who didn't drive a stock car until 18 months ago. While McDowell did run the full ARCA stock car schedule last year, he has made only five starts in NASCAR's Nationwide and Craftsman Truck divisions.
Others who have tried to make a quick transition from another form of racing to NASCAR's top division haven't fared well. Former Formula One star Juan Pablo Montoya has shown promise, but three-time Indy Racing League champion Sam Hornish Jr. and defending Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti are being humbled as rookies.
"It's intimidating, for sure, but at the same time, I do feel that running a full season of ARCA has put me in a better position than maybe those guys who are jumping straight from open-wheel into a Cup car," McDowell said. "If I tried to do this two years ago, it would have been impossible."
McDowell was impressive in ARCA — in fact, that's where Waltrip noticed him. He won four races, a season-high nine poles, finished second in the standings and earned the season award for leading the most laps.
That is about how easily success has come for the Glendale, Ariz., native since he first strapped on a helmet. In go-karts, he was a Junior North American World Karting Association champion and the first American to finish on the podium in a junior international event. In the developmental Star Mazda Series, he finished second in points in 2003 and dominated the following year.
Through businessman Rob Finlay, whom he met at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, he landed a ride in Grand Am driving a Porsche 996. Teaming with Champ Car veteran Memo Gidley, McDowell finished sixth in the Grand Am Rolex Series points in 2005 and fourth in 2006.
While driving sports cars, McDowell also ran some Champ Car events in 2005. He finished 11th at Mexico City and 12th at Surfers Paradise in Australia.
Road racing icon Boris Said said he and McDowell tangled the first time they raced together, but the two have since become friends.
"He spun me out, and I spun him back out," Said recalled. "But yeah, I have a lot of respect for him. He's a great race-car driver."
This crop of young kids is amazing. I mean, Colin Braun, Bruan, 18 years old at Roush-Fenway Racing. … Michael McDowell. … Joey Logano at [Joe Gibbs Racing]. I look at them, and I didn't even go to my first car race until I was 24."
McDowell credits his quick acclimation to the ARCA cars and tracks to spending four hours a day on a simulator. Using software called ARCA Sim Racing, he "practiced" on all of the tracks long before seeing them.
"It's like, the first time I went to Salem last year, I sat on the pole," he said of the legendary half-mile track in Indiana. "I think it's because I did 700 laps on the simulator before I got there."
To prepare for his Sprint Cup debut in Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville, he has spent the last several weeks watching races from the spotter's stand with Jarrett's spotter, Roman Pemberton.
Pemberton is now his spotter, and his crew chief is Bill Pappas, who was Montoya's chief engineer when he won the Indianapolis 500 in 2000.
McDowell doesn't have to worry about qualifying because, for at least the time being, he has an automatic berth. But he does have to worry about a sponsor. Aaron's Rents, which sponsored Reutimann through the first five races, has signed on for only another five races.
"If you plan for failure you'll fail, and if you plan for success you'll succeed," McDowell said. "My whole career has been one-season deals. I've never had the financial backing to control my own destiny, and I know when I get into the car for the first race that I have to perform.
"Not six races from now, not 10 races from now, but right away. That's what I'm preparing myself to do."
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