Michael McDowell was fighting for the win late at Texas Motor Speedway, but a crash with three laps to go in regulation ended his day prematurely.
The Spire Motorsports No. 71 Chevrolet cleared Ryan Blaney for the lead on a restart with 10 laps to go but had been chased for the top spot with four laps to go by Joey Logano. One lap later, McDowell had fallen to third behind Blaney. Exiting Turn 2, McDowell lost control of his car and crashed into the back straightaway’s outside SAFER barrier, relegating McDowell to a 26th-place finish.
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“I just really hate it for everybody on this Spire Motorsports No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet,” McDowell told FOX Sports. “We were giving it everything we had there to try to keep track position.”
A fierce block from McDowell down the backstretch at Lap 264 brought both McDowell and Logano down to the inside wall, but Logano surged forward in Turn 3 for the lead. Blaney capitalized on McDowell’s lost momentum and the two entered Turn 1 side-by-side before McDowell lost control.
“Joey got a run there; I tried to block it. I went as far as I think you can probably go. And then when Blaney slid up in front of me, it just took the air off of it and I lost the back of it,” McDowell said. “Still had the fight in me. I guess I should have conceded at that point, but I’m just proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports. I know that’s not the day we wanted, but we had an opportunity to win the race.”
McDowell was looking to snap a 58-race winless drought and score Spire Motorsports its first win since 2019 (Justin Haley, Daytona International Speedway). Instead, he remains without a top-10 finish through 11 races this season, with three best finishes of 11th (Daytona, Circuit of The Americas, Talladega).
This story will be updated.
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