'I still had the fight in me' before Texas crash, McDowell says

Michael McDowell was in the fight for his first win with Spire Motorsports, but he wound up fighting just a little too hard.

McDowell crashed off Turn 2 at Texas Motor Speedway with three laps to go in the Wurth 400 after losing the air off the nose of his Chevrolet after losing second position to Ryan Blaney. McDowell lost the lead to Joey Logano one lap before, although he did all he could to block the Team Penske driver, and that included running Logano to the apron down the backstretch.

“I just really hate it for everyone on this Spire Motorsports 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet,” McDowell said. “We were giving it everything we had there to try to keep track position, and Joey (Logano) got a run there, and I tried to block it. I went as far as I think you could probably go.

“Then when (Ryan) Blaney slid in front of me, it just took the air off of it, and I just lost the back of it. I still had the fight in me, but I probably should have conceded at that point.”

An impressive launch off a restart with 23 laps to go in regulation gave McDowell the lead. By taking the outside of the front row against Kyle Larson, McDowell was able to time the restart perfectly, along with a shove from behind, to put himself clear into the lead by Turn 1. On the next restart, with 15 laps to go, he ran side-by-side with Blaney, and was deemed the leader when the caution flew with 14 laps to go.

McDowell held the lead through one more restart, with 10 laps to go. Logano overtook his teammate, Blaney, for second and needed a few laps before he closed and quickly overtook McDowell.

Ultimately, McDowell finished 26th. The loss of air behind Blaney off Turn 2 first shot McDowell into the outside wall and the inside backstretch wall.

“I’m just proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports,” McDowell said. “I know that’s not the day that we wanted, but we had the opportunity to win the race. I’m really proud of everyone at the Hendrick Motorsports engine shop – you guys saw those restarts — the motors were ripping. I just hate that we didn’t get it done, but we knew we had to go for it. We went for it, and it didn’t work out.”