NASCAR CUP SERIES: GO BOWLING AT THE GLEN

May 10, 2026

Michael McDowell

Pit Lane Interview

Q. Michael McDowell had to make up a similar gap at the end of the race there to get yourself all the way back up to second place. Up-and-down day. Had some strategy stuff going on a little bit of everything. It's been a rough stretch for this No. 71 team. How good does this result feel?

MICHAEL McDOWELL: Yeah, it's great. It's great to get this Chevrolet in the top five. There was moments where I thought, oh, maybe we can hang with SVG, and it felt like he was just pace himself back off me, and he would take back off.

In that second stage there, we got a little off strategy and then recovered well, which Travis did a great job of getting the track position when we need it. Just not quite enough to run him down.

Like I said, it's just tough, man. Second is awesome. It's great to get momentum back on our side. We needed it after a rough few weeks, but we wanted to get to victory lane. Proud of Spire. Proud of my guys. They worked really hard. Happy Mother's Day to my wife and all the mothers out there. Great day. We'll build on it and hopefully get ready for Charlotte 600. And I would have liked to make that All-Star race too. That would have been another plus to win.

Q. As you were getting buried in the pack, what was going through your mind? Did you think second place was even a possibility at that point?

MICHAEL McDOWELL: We restarted there 27th. I wasn't sure how that was going to work out. We made quick work to get near the top 10, and it cycled around again, and then we got a little bit of track position.

You know, I don't know even if we restarted right behind SVG if we had the pace for him. That last stop we came out right with him, and he still had a bit of pace on us. We got a little work to do, but a good building block. Our road course program has really come around. Top 5 at COTA. Top 5 at Mexico. I feel like we're building on it. We just need a little bit more.