McDowell Starts Strong at Gateway

In only their second race together, Michael McDowell and the MacDonald Motorsports crew made significant advancements with the No. 81 Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers Dodge Charger, qualifying in 14th and running in the top 10 early in the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway last Saturday.  However, the day ended prematurely with an accident on lap 110 of 200 laps due to a suspension failure.

“We really had good speed this weekend and I was very impressed with the improvement we made in just a week,” said McDowell, who remains in 11th place in the driver standings.  “The team worked hard and I hate that we lost a race car.”

According to McDowell, the car started out close to where they wanted it for the race set-up, allowing him to quickly move up to 10th place until lap 24 when McDowell faded to 14th  as the car’s handling became tight.  After losing a lap later by running out of gas, McDowell raced back through the field from 26th to 18th, putting the No. 81 in position for the lucky dog when the suspension failure occurred on lap 110. Too much damage forced the team to retire for the day in 32nd place.