By Cole Cusumano

Adding to the feel-good story of 2020, Michael McDowell drove his way to a seventh-place finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in a day that was disastrous for many. This was the Arizona-native’s second top-10 in three races, and it’s now becoming apparent that Front Row Motorsports’ success is no fluke.

Over the last eight events, McDowell has secured career-best finishes at five different tracks. If that wasn’t impressive enough, his placing at the Brickyard marked his best result of the season and his 10th-career top-10 — quite an achievement for a driver who’s spent the entirety of his 13-year NASCAR Cup Series career racing for smaller budget teams.

McDowell and his Rookie of the Year contending teammate, John Hunter Nemechek have consistently proven there’s speed under the hoods of their Ford Mustangs each week. Both Front Row Motorsports drivers have a pair of top-10s this season and they’ve been running near the top-dozen of the leaderboard almost everywhere.

Short and intermediate tracks, superspeedways, you name it, they’ve shown up. Chalk it to no practice, better parts, endless hours in the shop or the desire for success — whatever the case, it’s a trend the NASCAR world has happily embraced.

“It’s such a big run for us,” McDowell said. “I’m so proud of everybody at Front Row (Motorsports) and Bob Jenkins for giving me this opportunity.  It’s taken so long to be this competitive and I’m so thankful to have the opportunity. So many great people that make this possible and we’re doing it.  We’re doing it every week.  We’re definitely way more competitive than we’ve ever been and it’s a lot of fun.”

It’s been a joy to see McDowell’s progression throughout 2020. He currently sits 23rd in the standings, 75 points back from the cutoff. It’s going to be a bit of a climb, but there are eight races remaining until the Playoffs and if they can continue to formulate consistent runs and capitalize on others failures, anything is possible.

There’s no use in trying to predict the outcome of the No. 34 team’s future for the next scheduled four races, as they’ve been the anomaly all season. Coming off his best finish of the year, two top-10s in the last three weeks and proven speed each week, it seems like the sky’s the limit for Front Row Motorsports.