In 11 previous starts at the Monster Mile, Michael McDowell had a best start of 28th in 2008. Since qualifying was rained out Friday afternoon, McDowell landed in the same position of 28th. McDowell went through the race on Sunday battling with a tight race car for a majority of the 400 mile race. Just past the halfway point of the race, the No. 95 picked up a piece of debris on the nose of the car. Unable to dislodge the debris on the track, McDowell was forced to bring the No. 95 Chevrolet to pit road under green flag conditions, losing two laps to the rest of the field. But, the team persevered and McDowell deftly avoided trouble in a string of late-race cautions, climbing into the 20th position at the finish, a career-best for the veteran driver at Dover.“We had a crazy race, that’s for sure,” McDowell said. “We got trapped further back in the field when we had to pit under green to get the trash off the grill and lost two laps. We stuck with it and salvaged a solid Top-20 finish with all the attrition.”
McDowell will now head into the Friday Night Sprint Showdown where McDowell will look to make his first career Sprint All-Star Race. McDowell has raced in the Showdown 2 years with Leavine Family Racing, with his best finish of 13th came last year. McDowell will certainly be a favorite in a field of this years best drivers without a win including Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, among many others. The fan vote is still open and McDowell can get voted in but his best shot of making it is by winning one of the 3 segments. McDowell has improved in 2016 and in a race with many of the drivers he has defeated in the past, he can do it. (Koelle,2016)
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