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McDowell started his career at the age of three racing BMX bicycles. He would always win his division because there were not any other three- or four-year-olds to compete against. At the start of each race, someone would have to hold him in the starting gate because his feet did not reach the ground. Then, when McDowell was eight years old, he moved to karting with help from his mother Tracy, his father Bill, and his older brother Billy, who were all avid race fans. After ten years in karts, he would win not only the World Karting Association championship, but he would also take back to back undefeated International Kart Federation championships, along with 18 consecutive feature wins. From karts, McDowell moved into Formula Renault with World Speed Motorsports in 2002 and won the Infineon Raceway, Las Vegas, and Firebird International Raceway events in his rookies season. Moving up the ladder, McDowell would move to the Star Mazda Series in 2003. He took victories at Sebring and Road America en route to a runner-up finish in the points. McDowell won seven races in 2004 en route to winning the series championship. McDowell would be picked up by Champ Car team Rocketsports for Surfer's Paradise and Mexico City, but decided to move on in 2005 to the Grand-Am Cup Series. During his run for the Star Mazda Championship, McDowell met businessman Rob Finlay at the Bob Bondurant

School of High Performance Driving, where McDowell was an instructor. McDowell and Finlay soon established a partnership, and McDowell would drive his first sports car, a Porsche 996 in the Grand-Am Cup Series for Finlay Motorsports. In 2005, McDowell would stay at Finlay, but moved up to the Rolex Sports Car Series, joining veteran Memo Gidley in a BMW powered Riley sponsored by the Make A Wish Foundation. Together, they finished sixth in the overall points and took the team's first victory at Mexico City. McDowell made history by becoming the youngest driver to stand on the podium for a Grand-Am race at Barber Motorsports Park, and became the first driver since Mario Andretti to compete in both an open-wheel race and a sports car race in the same weekend. McDowell would also drive the team's #60 BMW M3 in the

Grand-Am Cup series to a podium finish at Daytona International Speedway. McDowell would stick with Finlay for 2006 and was again partnered with Gidley. The duo would improve to fourth in points despite being winless. McDowell also drove a #15 Ford Mustang with owner Finlay, driving the car to a win at Barber Motorsports Park. He would cap off his Grand-Am year with a second-place finish at Miller Motorsports Park. ARCA RE/MAX Series owner Eddie Sharp put McDowell behind the wheel of his #2 Dodge for five races of the 2006 season, starting with the Governor's Cup 200 at the Milwaukee Mile, where he scored a 34th-place finish. McDowell finished in sixth place at Salem, fifth at Talladega, and fourth at Iowa. McDowell

returned to ESR to run the full schedule for Rookie of the Year honors in 2007. McDowell was involved in controversy at Toledo Speedway when his ESR teammate, Ken Butler III spun him late in the race. Butler would take his first win while McDowell would rally for a top ten finish. McDowell got his first stock car win at Kentucky Speedway. He followed that up with wins at Pocono, Chicagoland, and the season finale at Toledo. Although McDowell was in contention for the ARCA Re/Max Series championship all season, he was unable to pose a serious threat to Frank Kimmel for Kimmel's ninth championship. McDowell scored a second-place finish in the points along with Rookie of the

Year honors, as well as scoring nine pole positions during the season. As McDowell moved to NASCAR, his ESR ride was taken over by former Formula One driver Scott Speed. McDowell made his NASCAR debut in the Craftsman Truck Series. Driving the #17 for Darrell Waltrip Motorsports, McDowell qualified 29th and finish 30th after a late wreck. McDowell moved to the Xfinity Series as a developmental driver for Cup Series team Michael Waltrip Racing. Driving the #00 Toyota, McDowell drove at Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead, finishing respectively 20th, 14th, and 32nd. McDowell was chosen to drive the #00 Cup Series car in 2008 after Dale Jarrett's retirement; David Reutimann replaced Jarrett in the #44 UPS-sponsored car. McDowell

started 34th and finished 26th in his Cup series debut, the Goody's Cool Orange 500, after a flat tire near the end of the race. In early August 2008, McDowell was pulled from the #00 Toyota Camry Sprint Cup car in favor of veteran NASCAR driver Mike Skinner for three races. Skinner helped evaluate the team's progress, while trying to get the #00 into the Top 35 in owner points, though McDowell returned to the ride at Richmond on September 6, 2008. McDowell was again pulled from the #00 Toyota Camry when he failed to qualify for the Camping World RV 400 at Kansas on September 28. McDowell's contract was not renewed by MWR for 2009 when Michael Waltrip decided not to retire and the team did not have a sponsorship for another car. While performing a qualifying attempt for the

2008 Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 4, 2008, McDowell had an accident that was strikingly similar to that of another racer with a road-racing background; Gordon Smiley (who died in a crash during Indianapolis 500 time trials in 1982). McDowell's right front sway bar broke entering Turn 1, which caused the car to hit the SAFER barrier almost head-on at approximately 185 miles per hour, according to data obtained and reported by SPEED channel (185 mph to zero mph in one foot, as reported by

SPEED's Bob Dillner, before accelerating in the other direction). The car spun around once while tipping onto its roof, and then barrel-rolled eight times with fire coming out of the engine compartment, shedding debris in all directions, until coming to a stop back onto its tires. A large, dark impact mark was seen on the SAFER barrier, which showed how hard the car hit the barrier, which had to be repaired (the barrier moved inward when the car hit it), and as a result, qualifying for the race was delayed by an hour. The safety features of the barrier, the HANS device and the Car of Tomorrow racecar protected him. Because of this, he walked away from the crash without injury, and waved to the stunned crowd. A video of the crash can been seen here. In 2009, McDowell drove a part-time schedule for JTG Daugherty Racing in the

NASCAR Xfinity Series. After JTG Daugherty Racing ran out of sponsorship support after the second race at Daytona International Speedway, it was announced that he would drive the next two races for MacDonald Motorsports. He also competed in several races with Tommy Baldwin Racing in the #36 Toyota Camry. McDowell remained in the top 10 for most of the season. McDowell also competed in the Truck Series in 2009 for ThorSport Motorsports driving the #98 Chevy Silverado. In 2012, McDowell ran the Joe Gibbs Racing #18 Xfinity Series car in select races, and competed in the Cup Series for Phil Parsons Racing (formerly HP Racing) full-time; the team secured full sponsorship for the first five races of the season. It formed a partnership with Whitney Motorsports and Mike Curb to field McDowell's car, which carried the #98. In the 2013 Daytona 500, McDowell recorded a then-career high 9th-place finish.

Later in the season in the Xfinity Series, McDowell won the pole for the inaugural Nationwide Children's Hospital 200 at Mid-Ohio. McDowell finished 2nd behind A. J. Allmendinger. In October 2013, it was announced that McDowell would be moving to Leavine Family Racing's #95 Ford for the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series season. He had a season best finish of seventh in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. In the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen, on lap 64, Greg Biffle came up on Ryan Newman's front bumper, turning him into the outside retaining wall. His car ricocheted off the wall into McDowell's path where Newman barely clipped McDowell in the right rear of his car, and with the

force of the impact, the rear end housing was snapped, causing him to get airborne. The car bounced twice in the air before it hit the wall. His housing was forced into the wall. The race was red-flagged, though both drivers were unharmed. McDowell returned to the LFR #95 car for a 20-race schedule in 2015. The team merged with Circle Sport in 2016 and switched to Chevrolet, with McDowell splitting the schedule with Ty Dillon with sponsorship from Thrivent Financial, Cheerios, and WRL Contractors among others. McDowell was able to get a 10th-place finish in the 2016 Coke Zero 400, his best finish of the season so far. At

the end of the season at Homestead, McDowell drove the #59 Chevrolet after CSLFR purchased a charter from the closing Tommy Baldwin Racing. McDowell ran decent all night and towards the end, he was able to avoid the big wreck involving Championship contender Carl Edwards and was able to get a 10th-place finish, his first non restrictor plate top 10 finish. That same year, McDowell drove for Richard Childress Racing in the #2 Rheem Chevrolet in a one-race deal at Road America which got McDowell his first NASCAR victory. McDowell led the final 24 laps en route to the win. McDowell returned to Leavine Family Racing's #95 Chevrolet in 2017. At Daytona for the Coke Zero 400,

McDowell spent most of the race towards the front and competed late for the win, as he was in second place on the last lap before ending the race with a career-best 4th-place finish, his first career top-five finish. It was also the best finishing result for Leavine Family Racing as a team. It would be his final season with LFR. In September 2017 it was announced Kasey Kahne would be replacing McDowell in the #95 car for the 2018 season. In November, Front Row Motorsports announced that McDowell would drive their #34 car full-time in 2018,

replacing Landon Cassill. He finished ninth in the Daytona 500. In 2019, McDowell returned to the #34 car for Front Row Motorsports. McDowell's longtime sponsor K-Love took a year-long break from being a primary sponsor of his car. In the 2019 Daytona 500 he finished fifth. After the race, 2018 champion Joey Logano confronted McDowell for not helping him win the Daytona 500, in which McDowell stated, "My team doesn't pay me to push you." McDowell returned to FRM for the 2020 season. McDowell would capture his first top 10 finish on a road course in his career

at the Daytona road course and would earn his new best career points standings finish in the cup series in 23rd. McDowell was back again with FRM in 2021. He won the season-opening Daytona 500 after avoiding a crash involving the leaders Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski on the final lap. Before his big victory, McDowell had one of the longest streaks of races before his first win. It was his first Cup Series win in his 358th start, second only to Michael Waltrip. He would go on to finish the first 3 races of the season inside the top 10. McDowell also nearly won at Talladega in the spring, finishing a close third behind Keselowski and Byron. McDowell would follow this performance by a strong 7th-place finish at the inaugural cup series race at Circuit of the Americas. McDowell's win

at Daytona locked him into the All-Star Race and the NASCAR playoffs for the first time in his 14-year cup series career. McDowell was eliminated from the playoffs following the conclusion of the Round of 16 at Bristol.
2022 again saw McDowell finish inside the top ten at Daytona as he came home seventh. 2023 was again a year in which McDowell would lead FRM into the play-offs. He got his second career Cup win when he dominated on the Indy Road Course. He was eliminate at the conclusion of the Round of 16.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER MCDOWELL - 12/21/1984