INDIANAPOLIS —As Michael McDowell looked for a new crew chief last year, he was struck by a spirited question from one candidate.
Travis Peterson, an engineer whose only NASCAR crew chief experience was in an interim role, was direct when McDowell said he had talked to others with more crew chief experience.
“Why,” Peterson said, “do guys keep hiring experienced crew chiefs instead of taking a risk on a guy who knows what his potential could be?”
Peterson was what McDowell sought.
Sunday, they celebrated a victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course that put McDowell and the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team in the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.
Even amid the emotion of winning at Indy, McDowell thought back to that lunch with Peterson and how he goaded him by talking about more experienced candidates.
“All I was doing was just to see if he had the fire — because if you don’t have fire, you’ll never make it at Front Row Motorsports,” McDowell said. “You just won’t. You have to be a fighter because it’s hard. You’ve got to do a lot more stuff than most of the people around you have to do, and you’ve got to put in more hours, and you’ve got to be willing to do more with less.
“So I was just seeing if I could piss him off a little bit, and he was fiery, and that’s what I wanted.”
Their partnership has led to one of McDowell’s best seasons. His two top-five finishes are tied for the most he’s had in a season. His six top 10s are more than any season except last year’s total of 12.
They’ve flourished in the last two months. McDowell has one win, two top fives and five top 10s in the last 10 races.
McDowell held off Chase Elliott, the winningest active driver on road courses who is in need of a victory to make the playoffs. While Elliott cut into McDowell’s lead late, the gap was always measured in seconds instead of car lengths.
But the idea that McDowell had pulled off a Cinderella win against Elliott and the rest of the field was met by a firm “absolutely not” by McDowell.
“We dominated the race,” he said. “We had the fastest car, and we executed. That’s what dreams are made of.”
Both Peterson and McDowell saw ahead of time what Sunday could bring. That brought out the nerves for both.
“I do get more nervous, but it is an excited nervous,” Peterson told NBC Sports about knowing how good McDowell’s car was in practice and qualifying. “It’s not like a scared nervous. … I didn’t sleep bad, but you could feel (the excitement) the whole time.”
McDowell said he felt nerves Sunday morning.
“I wasn’t so much thinking about the must-win of the playoffs,” said McDowell, who entered the race three points out of a playoff spot. “I was thinking of the must-win of you might not ever get another chance like this where your car is that good. You’d better make it count. I felt that this morning. I felt that pressure and that angst.”
But when he got in the car, he was focused.
McDowell, who started fourth, passed Daniel Suarez for the lead on Lap 6 and went on to win the first stage. McDowell finished second in the next stage to Denny Hamlin, the only driver who did not pit in the first two stages.
McDowell, Elliott and Suarez ran together after the second stage until their final pit stop. The front tire changer’s air hose got stuck on Suarez’s car, turning his pit stop into an excruciatingly long 24.9 seconds. That dropped Suarez well back of McDowell and Elliott.
McDowell kept his lead on Elliott and then it was a matter of waiting for a late-race caution. When that didn’t happen, it was a race to the checkered flag.
McDowell’s team had the best view of the finish. His pit stall was closest to the start/finish line.
When McDowell crossed the finish line, his crew jumped from the pit wall and Peterson — celebrating his first win as a crew chief — stood, thrust his arms in the air, clapped, hugged a teammate atop the pit box and then jumped down the last couple of steps from the pit box, hugged two more people before jumping off the pit wall to celebrate with his team.
#NASCAR … Winning moment for Michael McDowell’s team at Indy. They are going to the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/KE5b8Hjkle
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) August 13, 2023
“I’m a pretty animated guy,” Peterson told NBC Sports. “I just get full of emotion and want to celebrate with the guys. I love it. I think you should celebrate these things. They’re massive accomplishments for anybody.”
They are for McDowell, whose only other Cup win was the 2021 Daytona 500.
For as great as that victory was, COVID protocols left McDowell alone to celebrate in Victory Lane. That year is the only time his family had not gone to Daytona.
His wife Jami and their five children were at Indianapolis on Sunday, watching from the motorcoach before Aric Almirola’s wife told Jami to head out with the children to watch the final laps from pit road. When daddy won, they jumped up and down and yelled.
It was a celebration years in the works for McDowell.
“Even when I was start-and-parking (early in his NASCAR career), I’m like, ‘There’s going to be a day I’m going to win races and win championships, I know it. I feel it,’” McDowell said.
“My mindset hasn’t changed from that. It’s just been a rough road. It’s been tough. I mean, it just is.
“I won’t allow myself to think anything else because why would I be here? It’s just, when you’ve dedicated your entire life to something, to suck at it is not an option, and it’s just taken me more years than I’ve wanted to not suck at it.”
