{"id":5281,"date":"2016-08-27T22:43:14","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T03:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=5281"},"modified":"2016-08-27T22:43:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T03:43:14","slug":"michael-mcdowell-gets-first-nascar-win-at-road-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/27\/michael-mcdowell-gets-first-nascar-win-at-road-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael McDowell gets first NASCAR win at Road America"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Frank Rigas<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/b><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. \u2013 <\/span><\/span><\/strong>Michael McDowell\u2019s<\/strong> Twitter handle is @Mc_Driver.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

After Saturday, he may want to consider changing it — to something like @Mc_Winner.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

McDowell led 24 of the final 25 laps of the NASCAR XFINITY Series<\/a> Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville for his first victory in 94 series races.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Michael

Michael McDowell drives the #2 Rheem Chevrolet celebrates his victory after the NASCAR Xfinity Series Road America 180 fired up by Johnsonville at Road America on August 27, 2016 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular finished .534 seconds ahead of his Richard Childress Racing teammate Brendan Gaughan after two late restarts, including a green-while-checkered that pushed the race to 48 laps from its scheduled 45.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Chip Ganassi Racing\u2019s Brennan Poole was the top-finishing rookie, third, in his first start at Road America, after starting 12th.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The top three drivers were in Chevrolets.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The victory was the perfect finish to some unfinished business McDowell had at the 14-turn, 4.048-mile racetrack. In 2011, he started from the pole position and led a race-high 30 laps, but ultimately finished 12th. In 2012, he started second and finished second.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

“It means a tremendous amount to me,” said McDowell, who will compete in Sunday\u2019s Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway. “I\u2019ve been so close here at Road America. To finally finish it off was huge.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Michael

Michael McDowell drives the #2 Rheem Chevrolet celebrates his victory after the NASCAR Xfinity Series Road America 180 fired up by Johnsonville at Road America on August 27, 2016 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

It almost wasn\u2019t, as Gaughan\u2019s late charge nearly spoiled McDowell\u2019s day. The 2014 race winner spent much of the day running in the second half of the top 10 after getting out of pit stop sequence with the leaders. On the penultimate lap, though, Gaughan bolted from fourth-place to second after making a three-wide pass of Daniel Suarez and Justin Marks in Turn 5. From there, McDowell \u2013 and victory — was within reach.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

“When you\u2019re racing your teammate you\u2019ve got to have a little more respect maybe than normal,” Gaughan said. “I almost got close enough to him to make him make a mistake.”<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

McDowell didn\u2019t waver and pushed the Childress team\u2019s winning streak at Road America to three, joining Paul Menard (2015) and Gaughan (2014).<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The win was not without incident. Team Penske\u2019s Alex Tagliani, who started from the pole position for the second time in two NASCAR XFINITY Series races at Road America, maintained that a lap-29 tangle with McDowell was deliberate.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Michael

Michael McDowell drives the #2 Rheem Chevrolet poses with the trophy after his victory at the NASCAR Xfinity Series Road America 180 fired up by Johnsonville at Road America on August 27, 2016 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

“We were the car to beat,” said Tagliani, who led 17 laps and had just regained the top spot going into Turn 5 when he was bumped from behind by McDowell and spun going into Turn 6. “The opportunity presented itself and he took the fastest car on the track out.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tagliani, who finished second here in 2014, wound up seventh.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

McDowell, when asked about the incident during his post-race press conference, said it wasn\u2019t intentional.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

“He went wide in Turn 5 and I got under (Justin Marks) and (Tagliani),” McDowell said. “I was alongside of him and he just decided to turn in. Once we made contact, I just came off the brake and pushed him out of the way. And the reason I did that is because if had I not, I\u2019d have been stuck there too and I would have got run over.”<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The race was slowed by six caution flags for 13 laps, including one for light rain.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Elliott Sadler leads the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship standings by 47 points over Daniel Suarez.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"The

The green flag waves for the start of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Road America 180 fired up by Johnsonville at Road America on August 27, 2016 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Alex

Alex Tagliani drives the #22 Discount Tires Ford during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Road America 180 fired up by Johnsonville at Road America on August 27, 2016 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Michael

Michael McDowell drives the #2 Rheem Chevrolet ahead of Owen Kelly drives the #18 Tunity Toyota during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Road America 180 fired up by Johnsonville at Road America on August 27, 2016 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

NASCAR XFINITY Series Race – Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Road America<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Saturday, August 27, 2016<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1. (2) Michael McDowell(i), Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2. (8) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3. (12) Brennan Poole #, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4. (5) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 5. (7) Ryan Reed, Ford, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6. (11) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 7. (1) Alex Tagliani, Ford, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8. (14) Elliott Sadler, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 9. (13) Darrell Wallace Jr., Ford, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 10. (17) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 11. (25) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12. (6) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 13. (27) Dakoda Armstrong, Toyota, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 14. (39) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 15. (24) Ray Black #, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 16. (22) Brandon Jones #, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 17. (4) Owen Kelly, Toyota, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 18. (9) Blake Koch, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 19. (18) JD Davison, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20. (21) Alex Kennedy(i), Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 21. (10) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 22. (36) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 23. (31) Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 24. (32) David Starr, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 25. (16) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 26. (28) Tomy Drissi, Toyota, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 27. (26) Stanton Barrett, Ford, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 28. (35) BJ McLeod #, Ford, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 29. (20) Scott Heckert, Ford, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 30. (40) Alon Day, Dodge, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 31. (38) Paige Decker, Chevrolet, 48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 32. (3) Justin Marks, Chevrolet, 47.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 33. (15) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 43.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 34. (19) Kenny Habul, Chevrolet, Suspension, 26.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 35. (37) John Jackson, Dodge, Brakes, 22.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 36. (33) Nic Hammann, Dodge, Rear Gear, 22.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 37. (34) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, Fuel Pump, 20.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 38. (23) Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, Electrical, 6.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 39. (30) Jeff Green, Toyota, Brakes, 4.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 40. (29) Garrett Smithley #, Chevrolet, Accident, 2.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Average Speed of Race Winner:\u00a0 74.573 mph.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Time of Race:\u00a0 2 Hrs, 36 Mins, 20 Secs. Margin of Victory:\u00a0 0.534 Seconds.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Caution Flags:\u00a0 6 for 13 laps.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lead Changes:\u00a0 6 among 4 drivers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lap Leaders:\u00a0\u00a0 A. Tagliani 1-9; B. Gaughan 10-11; E. Jones # 12-15; A. Tagliani 16-23; M. McDowell(i) 24-27; E. Jones # 28; M. McDowell(i) 29-48.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):\u00a0 M. McDowell(i) 2 times for 24 laps; A. Tagliani 2 times for 17 laps; E. Jones # 2 times for 5 laps; B. Gaughan 1 time for 2 laps.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Top 10 in Points: E. Sadler – 770; D. Suarez – 723; J. Allgaier – 720; T. Dillon – 713; B. Gaughan – 707; E. Jones # – 678; B. Poole # – 669; B. Jones # – 652; D. Wallace Jr. – 606; R. Reed – 568.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Frank Rigas NASCAR Wire Service ELKHART LAKE, Wis. \u2013 Michael McDowell\u2019s Twitter handle is @Mc_Driver. After Saturday, he may want to consider changing it — to something like @Mc_Winner.\u00a0 McDowell led 24 of the final 25 laps of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville for his first victory in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,181],"class_list":["post-5281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-xfinity-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/RA_NXS_McDowell_082716.jpg?fit=3000%2C1950&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-1nb","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5281"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5290,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5281\/revisions\/5290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}