NASCAR team poised to ‘shock a lot of people’ in 2022

A team often overlooked in the NASCAR Cup Series lineup, the reigning Daytona 500 champions have something to prove as the Next Gen era gets underway.

The Next Gen era is officially scheduled to get underway this afternoon with the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

Front Row Motorsports enter the race as the reigning winners, with Michael McDowell having avoided a last-lap wreck last year en route to taking his #34 Ford to victory lane.

He led only the 200th and final lap of the race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked oval in Daytona Beach, Florida. The win was his first in 358 career starts, the second most in Cup Series history among first-time winners. It was also just Front Row Motorsports’ third win in 18 years.

When McDowell won the race and locked up his first career playoff spot, many fans joked that he had solidified 16th place in the final championship standings, which translates to worst among the playoff drivers.

Indeed, despite having a career year with two top five finishes, five top 10 finishes and an average finish of 20.5, McDowell ended up in 16th, well behind the top 15.

But the introduction of the Next Gen car for the 2022 season should present him and the team with an amazing opportunity to be far more competitive on a regular basis.

“A lot has changed this year in NASCAR with this Next Gen car,” McDowell told Beyond the Flag. “We got a brand-new car, and so I’m very optimistic going into this season that it won’t just be a handful of races that we can contend for wins and be competitive. I feel like we’ll have the opportunity to run up front and challenge for wins more often. And that’s exciting.”

McDowell believes that Front Row Motorsports are poised to “shock a lot of people” in 2022.

“It’s what I’ve been waiting for,” he continued. “We talked about this Next Gen car two years ago. It was supposed to roll out last year, but with COVID and everything that happened, that delayed it and delayed it, and so to finally have it here, I feel like this is my opportunity to really shine and to make the most of it. And so I’m hopeful going into this season that this could be the year where we make an impression and shock a lot of people.”

The 37-year-old Phoenix, Arizona native tends to run better at superspeedways and road courses than other tracks, and those tracks are set to host 10 of the 36 races on this year’s schedule.

But given just how many unknowns there are for all of the Cup Series teams heading into this new era, he believes that these won’t be the only tracks at which he can excel as he attempts to land a second consecutive playoff berth.

“I feel like we don’t look at it too much like that just because this car is such a fresh, clean slate that we don’t know where we’re strong yet, we don’t know where we gotta improve,” he explained. “I don’t think anybody really does.”

McDowell’s career year in 2021 came after he had had a career year in 2020 with four top 10 finishes and an average finish of 20.9. Prior to 2020, he hadn’t finished in the top 10 in a non-superspeedway race since 2016, yet all four of his top 10 finishes in 2020, plus three more in 2021, came in such races.

However, he admitted that superspeedways and road courses should still provide him with an excellent opportunity to return to victory lane in 2022.

“My strengths in the past have been superspeedways and road courses,” he admitted. “And I would say the road courses are our best opportunity with this new car to get wins and to run up front. At the same time, I’ve been in this sport a long time. I’ve had great runs at other places and I feel like now that we have a similar platform with the other teams, we’ll be able to perform at a high level every weekend.”

McDowell feels that the entire Front Row Motorsports team will thrive in 2022. Todd Gilliland has joined the team as a rookie driver, making him McDowell’s fifth teammate in five seasons at the Bob Jenkins-owned team.

“When you explain it like that, I must be hard on teammates!” he joked. “But yeah, I’ve had a new teammate and I’ve had a rookie teammate for the last four years. I think that this year is different. I think with Todd Gilliland — David Gilliland, his father drove for this team and is a big part of what Front Row is today. And Todd’s been around our team, and he’s been around the sport since he was a baby. And I think that he is going to be here for a long time.”

Gilliland enters the Cup Series as the replacement for Anthony Alfredo behind the wheel of the of the #38 Ford after spending the last two years driving for Front Row Motorsports in the Truck Series.

“So I hope that next year we’ll be able to still be teammates and everything will stay the same,” he said. “And that’s what we’re planning on. More than anything, it shows how hard this sport is. When we were talking about the perseverance of making it 10 or 15 years in this sport, that’s a perfect example of it. It is hard in the Cup level, at the Cup level, and so yeah, it’s challenging for rookies coming in, especially the last two or three years with not being able to practice and not having that normal routine where they get some seat time and can figure things out.

“So yeah, it’s a challenging sport, it’s hard to break into, it’s hard to stay in, but I’m looking forward to working with Todd. He’s got a bright future and I think he’s going to do really well.”

The 64th annual Daytona 500 is set to be broadcast live from Daytona International Speedway on Fox beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET. Can McDowell defend his title? Start your free trial of FuboTV today and don’t miss a moment of the on-track action!