2012 Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell can join elite company by winning first two races of a season

Michael McDowell at ISM Raceway in 2018 photo By Zach Catanzareti, CC BY-SA 2.0, https commons.wikimedia.org

After bagging the biggest race in NASCAR, the Daytona 500, Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell must come back down from the Cloud-9-type celebration all week and return his focus to battle it out on the 3.61-mile, 14-turn Daytona International Speedway Road Course in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 At DAYTONA this Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio in hopes of becoming just the sixth different driver to win the first two races of a NASCAR Cup Series season.

If McDowell can accomplish the feat, he will join some elite company: Matt Kenseth (2009: Daytona, Auto Club), Jeff Gordon (1997: Daytona, Rockingham), David Pearson (1976: Riverside, Daytona), Bob Welborn (1959: Champion, Daytona), Marvin Panch (1957: Lancaster, Concord).

The Glendale, Arizona native, McDowell, made his series debut at the Daytona Road Course last season; he started 30th and finished 10th.

Michael McDowell celebrating after winning the 2021 Daytona 500 By Zach Catanzareti Photo, CC BY 2.0, https commons.wikimedia.org

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