McDowell capitalized on a sluggish pit stop by Daniel Suarez to increase his advantage at the beginning of the last round and never turned his gaze away.
The 38-year-old native of Phoenix, Ariz., deftly out-dueled Chase Elliott down the stretch as the race ended with a 77-lap green flag run. He cleared Elliott by 0.937 seconds to win Sunday’s race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
McDowell’s win secures his spot in the 16-driver field for the 2023 playoffs, despite being in contention based on points.
McDowell’s sole additional victory occurred at the Daytona 500 in 2021. He achieved his highest career ranking of 16th in the series standings during that particular year.
McDowell and his team from Front Row Motorsports secured the victory, marking Ford’s first three consecutive wins since the 2020 season.
“I cannot reword.”
“I feel incredibly grateful to still be competing in the Cup series. Delivering a performance of that caliber, I’m not sure if it was completely dominant, but it certainly felt like a display of dominance to me.”
When questioned about Elliott’s accusation in the last few laps, McDowell stated that he was simply trying to be cautious and preserve his resources. McDowell anticipated a potential caution towards the end of the race and wanted to avoid exhausting his equipment. His main objective was to sustain the distance between himself and Elliott.
Suarez, who started on the pole, finished third, Tyler Reddick was fourth and Alex Bowman rounded out the top five.
Completing the top-10 were Chase Briscoe, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen.
Van Gisbergen, who won in his inaugural Cup race last month on the Chicago Street Course, led a strong international contingent of drivers in Sunday’s race.
Fellow Supercars star Brodie Kostecki finished 22nd, 2010 Le Mans 24 overall winner Mike Rockenfeller was 24th, 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button was 28th and WEC star Kamui Kobayashi ended up 33rd.
Stage 1
After finishing lap 15, McDowell successfully defended against Suarez, winning Stage 1 by a margin of 0.720 seconds. This victory marked McDowell’s first stage win in his career. Elliott secured third place, followed by Reddick in fourth and Larson in fifth.
Joey Logano quickly crossed over the curb and forcefully collided with Justin Haley, causing him to crash into the tire barrier at Turn 6. This collision resulted in significant damage to Justin Haley’s No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
Stage 2
Denny Hamlin secured the Stage 2 victory by a margin of 0.744 seconds over McDowell after completing lap 35. Notably, Hamlin was the sole driver who had not made a pit stop under green flag conditions.
Suarez ran third, Brad Keselowski fourth and Elliott fifth. Hamlin and Keselowski made their first stops of the race within the next two laps.
Stage 3
After Hamlin hit pit road for his first pit stop of the race, McDowell took over the race lead on lap 36.
Suarez made a move with 35 laps left, maneuvering past Elliott and gently pushing him aside to secure the second-place spot behind McDowell.
After completing another lap, a few cars on the lead lap entered the pit road to start the last round of pit stops under green flag conditions. They needed to change their tires and refuel in order to reach the finish line.
Suarez experienced a delayed pit stop, resulting in the loss of multiple positions due to the air hose briefly getting stuck under the splitter of the No. 99 Chevrolet.
After completing all the stops, McDowell emerged as the new leader ahead of Elliott, with 29 laps left.
With only 15 laps remaining, McDowell held a lead of 2.6 seconds over Elliott, while Suarez trailed in third place, nearly seven seconds behind the frontrunner.
Elliott was still behind McDowell by a margin of 2.8 seconds, with only five laps left. He faced challenges in maneuvering through slower cars that were between him and the frontrunner.
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