Michael McDowell credits Shane van Gisbergen for his Indy triumph

Michael McDowell has SVG to thank for his milestone Indy win.

Michael McDowell credits Shane van Gisbergen for his Indy triumph

Shane van Gisbergen Credits: @THproject91/Twitter) and Michael McDowell (Credits: @wileyx/Twitter)

Michael McDowell has pointed out that three times supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen’s win at the inaugural Chicago Street race fueled him to work more and eventually secure the win at the Indy road course race last Sunday. The Kiwi driver made history when he became the first ringer in five decades to win a Cup race on debut.

While many drivers on the Cup garage deemed the win as a testament to the street racing prowess of the Supercar driver, for the No:34 Front Raw Motorsports driver, it was unthinkable. Chicago was the perfect storm for SVG’s No:91 Trackhouse team. 99% Cup grid was making its street course debut, while Gisbergen, who had superior street track experience, it was just a matter of adjusting with the car.

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For Michael McDowell, the V8 driver’s win shouldn’t have happened.  It was a frustrating outcome for Mcdriver, and it made him mad. He decided to figure out what he was missing and work hard to get better. McDowell added that he doesn’t want to take anything away from what the Supercar driver did, but at the same time, admitted it shouldn’t have happened.

“Two things that fired me up over the last month, month and a half, is SVG kicking our butts in Chicago, that frustrated me, man. That should never happen. That made me mad enough to go to work. Like, I’m going to figure it out,” McDowell said in the Action Detrimental podcast.

“I’ve got to be better. Not taking away what he did, what he did was nothing short of miraculous. I mean, unbelievable. But it shouldn’t happen. And so that fired me up,” McDowell added while talking to Denny Hamlin.

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Michael McDowell reveals what made his Indy win more special

McDowell
Michael McDowell after Indy race win (Credits: @Team_FRM /Twitter)

The Ford driver pointed out that his continued poor set of finishes due to mistakes in the previous races made the perfect execution at Indy more special. McDowell will now aim to execute like he did at IMS this weekend at Indy and secure a couple of stage points to secure a deep run in the Cup series playoffs.

“So many times I’ve given up good finishes, speeding on pit road, speeding getting to pit road or whatever. Over the wall too soon, just dumb stuff. Pit lane violation, like all these things, you just can’t have it in these races and recover from it. So it was fun to execute.” McDowell said.

Watkins Glen and the regular season finale at Daytona will be two races he can score better finishes and fight for wins. Superspeedway and road course are the No:34 teams’ strengths. Two solid races will give him the momentum necessary for the round of 16.

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