By Cole Cusumano

It appeared with just under 10 laps to go in the Quaker State 400 from Kentucky Speedway that Michael McDowell would eclipse his second consecutive top-10 and third in just four weeks — until the final caution of the day came out. 

Instead, the Front Row Motorsports driver had to settle for 24th. Even under the circumstances, it was another impressive showing for the No. 34 team as a result of strategy and it brought a smile to fans across the NASCAR world seeing that organization succeed once again.

McDowell’s counterpart, John Hunter Nemechek, was unable to backup his top-15 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway after being involved in an incident with about 30 laps to go. Admittedly, since Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender has trailed off slightly since capturing the attention of race fans in NASCAR’s return, but this shouldn’t overshadow all the good that’s come from the No. 38 camp.

After over a two-month hiatus due to COVID-19, the 23-year-old captured his first top-10 of the season at Darlington Raceway — a track notorious for being one of the most difficult on the circuit. Since then, he went on to secure another quality finish at Talladega Superspeedway and was holding steady at third in the rookie standings until Cole Custer found victory lane in the Bluegrass State.

Nonetheless, at the halfway point of the season, the Front Row Motorsports drivers have two top-10s each, and the pair have been common names running around the top-dozen almost every race since the sport’s return. If that wasn’t enough, McDowell has notched six career-best finishes between eight different tracks in nine events. 

The mystery behind the success of this small budget team has been an enigma that’s left many wonder what changed. The lack of practice? Better equipment? A culture change?

“It’s a lot of things, to be honest with you,” Drew Blickensderfer said. “Whenever you get better in this sport you very rarely can put your finger on one thing. It’s not one crew chief.  It’s not one crew member.  It’s not one driver, it’s a few things and when we went from three to two teams at Front Row, we were able to kind of cherry pick and although losing the funding from the 36 car and things like that in the organization hurts, as two teams now we were able to take guys off of that 36 to possibly make our team stronger, either engineers, crew members, so I think the two teams, the guys that build the cars and go to the racetrack on the cars are better than they’ve ever been at Front Row.”

The crew chief of the No. 34 went on to elaborate, saying team owner, Bob Jenkins, has done a masterful job in spending what funding they have to improve equipment provided to them by Roush Fenway Racing.

As for the theory of no track time aiding in the success of Front Row Motorsports, general manager, Jerry Freeze, reveals it’s 50-50. He debunked the qualifying aspect, citing that McDowell was a frequent beneficiary to the time trials last year. Through 17 races in the previous season, the Arizona-native’s average starting position was 21.2 with four top-15s, including a top-10. Contrasted to 2020, his average when taking the green flag is 28.9 via random draw. It should be noted the 35-year-old qualified eighth at Auto Club Speedway in March.

“The no practice thing, I think, has helped us a tremendous amount,” Freeze said. “Where we lack compared to some of the other teams is when they unload on Friday they’ve got a team at the shop ready to look at the information from the racetrack and help the people at the racetrack get their car better. Guys like Kyle Busch, they are the best in the world at sitting in that seat and saying, ‘I need this to be better on Sunday.’  They know what the track is gonna do.  They know what they feel.  With us getting our race cars better Michael doesn’t always know.  John Hunter is a rookie, he always doesn’t know what’s gonna happen on Sunday versus Saturday.  They haven’t had great race cars for years and years like some of the veteran guys have had, so I think them not knowing that and not hurting us during practice has helped a ton.”

McDowell and Nemechek sit 24th and 25th, respectively, in the standings with nine races remaining until the Playoffs. They’re going to need quite a bit of help and essentially a win to make the postseason, but they’ve defied the odds all season.

“I think we have stronger teams, and that gives a confidence in the race car drivers that we’re not gonna battle our butts off to try to stay on the lead lap — we’re gonna battle against guys who are spending two or three times more than us for top 15s, and I think both John Hunter (Nemechek) and Michael (McDowell) have been able to do that or the majority of the year,” Blickensderfer concluded.

It should be noted that McDowell is one of only six drivers to compete on the Daytona International Speedway road course slated to be run in mid-August. As someone who’s developed a reputation as a quality road course racer, he could be a convincing dark horse with a slight advantage over others.

Front Row Motorsports has been the anomaly all season, so there’s no use in predicting their outcomes the rest of the way. For now, it’s best to enjoy the ride.