Everyone is happy for Daniel Suarez, but how ’bout that Michael McDowell?
McDowell has become a familiar front-packer at plate races — 11 of his 23 career top-10s are at Daytona and Talladega.
He’s also posted four top-10s in the past 11 road races since August of 2020, which should be no surprise given his sports-car road-racin’ background. However, less than halfway through the 2022 season, he’s topped his career-high and has six top-10s.
Daytona, Talladega and now Sonoma aren’t surprises, but he’s also finished near the front at Darlington, Charlotte’s 600-mile marathon, and the dirt at Bristol.
They told us the Next Gen could give some oomph to teams previously in need, and McDowell and Front Row Motorsports might be an overlooked example of that. Teammate Todd Gilliland, however, has yet to crack the code.
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So I’m looking at the guys Suarez joined as foreign-born Cup Series winners, and . . . ?
Yeah, yeah, you need some familiarizing with Earl Ross. the long-ago Canadian hot-rodder whose brief NASCAR career included a win at Martinsville in 1974.
Ross made 26 starts between 1973-78, and 21 of them came in ’74, when he had 10 top-10s as well as the win. Most of those starts were with team owner Junior Johnson, whose team resumed full-time NASCAR racing after a few years off line (his teammate was Cale Yarborough).
Earl’s short-term secret weapon was support from Canadian beer company Carling.
When Carling went away, so did Earl, who resumed his excellent short-track career throughout the Great White North while also operating his Ross Welding and Fabricating in Ailsa Craig, Ontario (when he wasn’t playing golf!).
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