Michael McDowell Interview: ‘I’m Pretty Proud Of Myself...I’m Still Surviving’

Our series of NASCAR driver interviews continues this week with HP Racing’s Michael McDowell, who once had an infamous crash at Texas Motor Speedway. SB Nation sat down with McDowell at Martinsville Speedway last week.

SBN: Who is the most underrated driver in NASCAR?

MM: David Reutimann. I think he’s only had moments where you can see how good he really is. They’ve always been a 10th-place car and he makes it a fifth-place car, you know what I mean? You just think about when he ran the 99 car in Nationwide, and he was the only one who could run with Kyle (Busch) every weekend.

In the Cup Series, you kind of lost track of him a little bit, because he was always 10th to 15th. But when they’re on and their package is good, he’s a top-three, top-four guy.

As a driver, you notice things like that about other drivers. You go back and watch replays and go, ‘Man, that guy, his car was sideways!’ You look at how well he ran at Charlotte in what I thought was an out-of-control race car.

To me, he’s just one of the underrated guys. I think it’s because he’s quiet, he keeps to himself. There’s not a lot of hype, not a lot of flair. He’s just really good at what he does.

SBN: What’s a race you didn’t win that still bugs you?

MM: Richmond, 2008 – the last race before the Chase starts. It was that weekend where we had that crazy rain and got flooded out, and everybody had to evacuate.

Qualifying got rained out, so we had to start 35th – we were right on that bubble of being in and out (of the top 35). This is when I was driving the 00 car (for Michael Waltrip Racing).

I started pretty far back there, and we ended up running pretty well during the race. David let a long portion of it and we ran in the top five for about 100 laps or so. Coming to about 75 to go, we were right about eighth to 10th – and I remember Biffle and Bowyer were racing to get into the Chase. And I was in front of both of them with like 15 laps to go.

It wasn’t going to be a win for me, but with the season I had and it being my first year in Cup, a top-10 would have been a win. Those guys were racing hard, I didn’t want to give up any spots even though I knew they were racing to get into the Chase.

One of them – I can’t remember which one – got into me, and we got shuffled back in pit stops and ended up finishing 20th. And at the time, I only had a few more races to showcase what I could do.

SBN: If you could pick any teammates in the garage, who would you like to team up with?

MM: Wow, that’s tough. Personality versus ability is different, and you’ve got to have a good mix on a team.

I’ve never worked with Jimmie Johnson, but I would love to see what he does. I would love just to see how he goes about the whole process, both at the track and away from the track. There’s a reason he’s able to do what he does every single season, and it’s unbelievable. I’d love to see just how intense he is, and where he focuses his time.

The same with Kyle Busch – his ability is better than anyone in this sport. I’d love to see how it is that when he can go to Bristol, he can win almost every time.

There’s nothing magical about this sport; there’s nothing mystic about it. Everybody’s just a person; they’re just people, whether it’s a crew chief or a driver. So they’ve literally figured something out. Like Kyle has a tremendous amount of ability, there’s no doubt about that – but there’s a reason he’s able to do what he can do in a race car. There’s a way to do it, and he’s figured it out.

Just learning from the good guys would be helpful. On the personal side of it, I’d just be more comfortable and have more fun with some of the younger guys, like Trevor (Bayne) and Landon (Cassill).

I had a great time with David Reutimann (at MWR) – we had a good relationship. But he’s not the best teammate, I’ll tell you that. My first year, I’d ask David, ‘So what are you doing in this corner?’ And he’d say, ‘I don’t know. I don’t even know what I’m doing. I just drive.’ Not that he was holding back, but he just doesn’t feel like he’s doing anything special or he’s done good enough, so he feels like if he helps you out, he’s going to actually hurt you.

The best teammates are the ones that want to just better the team. But this sport is kind of selfish – so you don’t give away all your secrets.

SBN: What driver did you most want to be like when you were growing up?

MM: I had a great appreciation for Michael Schumacher, because I was an open-wheel guy and I loved Formula 1. The thing I liked most about him was he was able to win with every single team he drove for. Even the teams where it was like, ‘Nah, there’s no way,’ he’d end up winning championships.

He’s been able to rally a group of people around him who will give 150 percent all the time. And that’s what’s made him a champion. I always had a lot of respect for people who are able to manage the people side.

I’m sure that’s exactly what Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus are about. That group of people, they want to do it to the best of their ability – because they know they get the best from Jimmie, the best from Chad. Nobody’s going home early, everybody’s working as hard as they can and everybody cares.

That’s hard to build – especially with a big group of people like there is in NASCAR. There might only be 15 guys at the racetrack, but there’s 300 back at the shop. And everybody’s got to be pulling in the same direction.

That’s something I’ve always admired in Michael Schumacher. Being a seven-time world champion, there were times they had better equipment and all that. But I feel like he was a part of that. Even when they were winning, he was keeping those guys driven because he knew the competition was going to catch up eventually.

SBN: When you retire someday, what do you want your retirement story to say about you?

MM: The correct answer would be that I would want people to know that I won a lot of races and was a champion. But my honest answer would be that I would want people to say, ‘You know what? That guy was a good guy. He took care of everybody he came into contact with. He was just full of joy and happiness and was somebody I wanted to be around.’ That would be more important to me than the races and the championships.

I’ve been through a tremendous amount of ups and downs since I made my debut at Martinsville in 2008. But you know what? I’m pretty proud of myself. Three years later – somebody who hasn’t done a whole lot in the sport, and in a bad economy – I’m still surviving. That’s pretty cool. Because there’s been a lot of guys who have come and gone already – and some of those guys, I would say, have even better talent than I do. But I’ve been able to just fight through it all and manage the highs and the lows and not get too discouraged and stay after it. So I’m really, really happy about that.

SBN: What’s a memorable post-race escape you’ve made from the track?

MM: As a race-car driver, when you get out of the car, you’re still in the zone. It’s not that you’re mad or angry, but you still have the adrenaline pumped up and it’s hot and you’re worn out. So I have a hard time snapping out of it. My patience gets pretty short.

You know the fans are there and they had a good time and they’re the reason we’re racing – but they’re just walking right down the middle of the road. We’ve had beer cans thrown at us and the whole deal, because we’re just trying to get to the airport so we don’t get left behind – and the fans are just moseying along.

It’s just funny, because you’ve just got two completely different thought processes. One is like, ‘Man, I just enjoyed the race and I want to stay here and take my time.’ And the other is like, ‘I gotta get out of here!’

So I had to remove myself from driving back to the airport; I’d let my spotter drive a few times – and then that turned out to be really bad, too. Now, I just drag my feet; I’m in no hurry.

SBN: Who is someone famous you’d like to meet that you haven’t met yet?

MM: Richard Stearns. I’ll make your readers go look him up.

SBN: Would you rather have Jamie McMurray’s 2010 season (winning huge races but missing the Chase) or Jeff Gordon’s 2010 season (making the Chase and contending for the title but not winning any races)?

MM: I’d rather have a Jamie McMurray season. It’s not just that he won races and ran good and won poles and won the biggest races – it’s his story. I haven’t had near the success he’s had – or any success – but I can relate to it a little bit. I can relate to feeling down and out and not being sure what you’re going to do in the sport.

For him to come back from all these unknowns – not being at Roush, getting picked up late in the game by Ganassi, Bass Pro Shops not being sure what they were going to do – and just make a statement of, ‘Hey, I’m for real and I’ve got the ability,’ that was really, really cool to see.

Just the trials he went through, it made him appreciate it way more, too. It just makes it more memorable and more powerful.

I’ve always said I’d rather win races than contend for a championship. And usually, if you win races, you’re going to contend. But if you told me I could win three races and miss the Chase or make the Chase and not win any, I’d rather win the races.

SBN: Where does your motivation to win come from?

MM: Well, it’s changed for me over a 10-year period. When you’re young and you’re a kid, you’re just competitive and you go all-out. And then, when you see that winning races equals opportunities and jobs, you get motivated by, ‘Hey, I need to win races so I can keep moving forward.’ So the motivation changes.

For me, my motivation now is different. I’m not always in a situation where I can win. Fortunately, this year, I’ll have an opportunity to win races with the Joe Gibbs Racing chance that I have (in the Nationwide Series).

My inner fire comes from the fact that I feel it’s a privilege to be here. It’s very easy for me not to be here. So I just try to do everything with excellence, to the best of my ability. If that means taking a car that should have finished 20th and finishing 15th, then that’s a job well done for me. That’s all I can do – do everything as hard as I can.

In that situation, you lose the ability to win; but you don’t lose the competitive fire. It just becomes a matter of doing it to the best of my ability. At the end of the day, that’s all that all of us can do – we may or may not be superstars, but as long as we’re pushing ourselves to do the maximum that we can, that’s what matters.

SBN: How different is your personality inside and outside the car?

MM: Inside the car, it changes quite a bit. It’s just that as soon as you get going, that competitive spirit kicks in and you’re driven to move forward and make things happen. So you just get in the zone. In any sport, it’s the same – it doesn’t matter if you’re down 10 late in the game, you’re like, ‘Come on, let’s get going.’ You just really get into that mindset.

You’ve got to try and control the highs and lows, because it’s easy to get worked up. You have to try and channel it. But I think that fire to be competitive is inside all of us, it’s just that everybody expresses it a little differently.

Some have this calm, quiet side to them and some have this in-your-face thing, like Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch. They wear everything on their sleeves, and you can see it. I don’t think it’s that they get spun out (emotionally) easier than Jimmie Johnson, I think it’s just that Jimmie Johnson channels it better. It’s not that he’s less competitive or less angry or less driven.

SBN: If you could switch lives with someone from a different sport, who would you want to be?

MM: You know, it’s funny – I don’t really think about stuff like that. I don’t think about the impossible; I’m content where I’m at. I don’t really imagine trying to do something else.

I always had the passion and dream to drive Formula 1, but I kind of outgrew that possibility. Maybe I wish I was 5-foot-8, 120 pounds so I could do that.

But I’m happy where I’m at. I wouldn’t change with anybody.

SBN: If you could take a year away from the sport and come back knowing you had a job guaranteed, would you want to do it?

MM: If I had a year off and I knew I had a job to come back to, I’d probably do more mission work. I’d go to Africa and these third-world countries. We get so caught up in the sport we’re in, because we have it so good and so easy...so much abundance and excess compared to how little the world has.

That’s kind of been where I’m at lately (mentally). It’s so unbelievable the sport that we’re in, there’s so many of us that take us for granted because it’s all we know.

SBN: If you win the championship someday, would you like to win it off Turn 4 of the last lap at Homestead, or would you like to have it clinched before you showed up?

MM: Your ego says you want to do it on the last lap, but I would rather have it clinched in Phoenix and not have to worry about it.

The amount of pressure that it takes off to have it clinched – it’s not cool for the sport, it’s not good for the last race – but as a driver, you just want it to be over because there’s so much pressure.

It’s like go-or-go-home qualifying for me: You want there to be 48 cars here, so when you beat somebody, you feel like you did something. But when there’s 43 cars, it’s pretty darn nice, you know what I mean?