Michael McDowell Races to California on a Wing and a Prayer
[media-credit name=”Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR ” align=”alignright” width=”218″]
[/media-credit]NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Michael McDowell is headed across the country, on a wing and a prayer, to Auto Club Speedway for this weekend’s race festivities.
McDowell will be piloting his No. 98 Ford Fusion for Phil Parson/Curb-Agajanian Racing in California, thanks to a faith-based partnership with the Christian radio network K-LOVE and Curb Records.
This unique sponsorship mixes McDowell’s passion for his faith, K-LOVE’s commitment to outreach, and Curb Records support of several Christian recording artists.
“This year, we’ve been fortunate enough to get Curb Records and K-LOVE, a syndicated Christian radio network, to come on board,” McDowell said. “The cool thing about these partnerships is that there are things that I want to be involved, in not just from a racing standpoint but also personally.”
As with all sponsorship opportunities, the partnership started with an introduction that expanded into a solid relationship. For McDowell, the K-LOVE introduction was made by his friends at Motor Racing Outreach and grew from there.
“On the K-LOVE side of things, they invited my wife and I to come on the K-LOVE cruise,” McDowell said. “Right before Daytona, they have a Christian cruise, like a music cruise, to the Bahamas.”
“There happened to be an opportunity where K-LOVE wanted to be involved in NASCAR, not just from the racing perspective but also from the outreach perspective,” McDowell continued. “So, the other partners that came on board with K-LOVE made the sponsorship possible.”
“It’s cool how it all comes together.”
The partnership officially started this season at Daytona, where McDowell, working with friend and fellow Christian Trevor Bayne, raced his way into the show.
“The reach that we had in Daytona was huge,” McDowell said. “I got to work with my buddy Trevor Bayne a lot and we got a lot of exposure.”
“Because of that K-LOVE has seen a huge response to their sponsorship and message,” McDowell continued. “They will actually have a K-LOVE booth set up in the fan zone at several of the upcoming races.”
This past weekend in Bristol, McDowell and his team launched a new promotion with his sponsors. The campaign is called “Let It Start With Me” and is dedicated to bringing the gospel message to the NASCAR community.
“One of Curb Record’s artists No Other Name had a single called “Let It Start With Me,” McDowell said. “The message behind it is instead of waiting for someone else to do it or get behind a cause, it should start with me.”
“Let me be the one that goes out and does it.”
McDowell and his team are now set to head to the other side of the country to race at Auto Club Speedway in California. And he admits that they need prayers to cope with the intense travel schedule, especially with such a small team.
“You go from Daytona, which got rain delayed so you’re already behind the eight ball,” McDowell said. “We only have five or six guys in the shop so when we lose a day, we lose a lot.”
“Then we went to Phoenix and Vegas without coming home and then to Bristol,” McDowell continued. “And now off we go to California.”
“So, it’s pretty crazy.”
In addition to his faith, McDowell’s family, including his wife and three year old son, are also helping to cope with the rigorous racing schedule. And the driver announced that he has additional plans to add to his brood.
“My wife and I travel together with our three year old son to all the races,” McDowell said. “For us, we drive to all the races ourselves in the motor home.”
“My wife is expecting and is due in October,” McDowell continued. “And we are also still in the process of adopting two children from Honduras. That too is an opportunity to share that there are kids out there that need adopted and need a family to care for them.”
From his family to the race track, McDowell is blending his faith and sponsorship in unique ways that are most personal to him.
“This is so different from anything I’ve done in the past,” McDowell said. “This is something that I’m passion about, Christian music and outreach in particular.”
“To be able to partner with other like-minded groups is huge for me,” McDowell continued. “It’s natural and no one has to twist my arm to show up.”
“For me, this is who I am, what I believe in and what I’m passionate about,” McDowell said.
“It’s where I want to be with it.”
Problems and Solutions – NASCAR’s Bad Start
Never let it be said that I don’t have an opinion. The events of the past week have been monumental for NASCAR. I think a lot of folks don’t realize that what has happened will change the way things are done inside the sanctioning body in Daytona Beach for a long time. Can you imagine that the day would come where a track owner would poll the fans to see what they wanted? Can you imagine the day when the sanctioning body would be embarrassed by its own hand-picked appellate officer? Lots of questions and more surprise and confusion.
NASCAR, though they are a dictatorship, has always prided itself as being fair. It doesn’t always appear that way, but that is the intention. Early on, they appointed an appeals committee made up of respected industry insiders. Teams also had the right to appeal to a one-man judge who could overturn any penalties somewhat like the United States Supreme Court of Appeals, except in this case, it’s not seven judges, but only one. NASCAR has always appointed former industry officials for this office. I can remember it was once Bunky Knudson, the former Pontiac and Ford CEO, and since it didn’t seem to matter over the years, I didn’t pay much attention after that. It seems that no matter how fair CAO John Middleton was in his decision in the Hendrick Motorsports/Chad Knaus vs. NASCAR case, some things were not well thought out.
Fans will immediately take sides because that is their nature, but NASCAR left some holes in their thinking. Why in the world would you name an executive from a manufacturer as your CAO? Further, why would you name an officer who had a personal relationship with some of the principals? Apparently Rick Hendrick spoke at Middlebrook’s retirement dinner. I’m not saying that this had anything to do with the decision, but it opens up a lot of questions in the minds of fans, other teams, and the media. What were they thinking? The fallout will be huge. Every penalty will be appealed to the CAO and the minute that someone, anyone, doesn’t get a “get out of jail free card” like the Hendrick team did, it will inevitably be because they weren’t John Middlebrook’s friend.
The boys in Daytona Beach have a lot of thinking to do over the next few months. What did they do wrong? Why did a panel of many decide the penalty should stand while the appellate officer decided that the penalty should be reduced? Why was the fine allowed and the points penalties and suspensions be waived, given the reputation of the principals involved? Complicating all of this is the fact that we’ll never know. If one appeals to the US Supreme Court (in the example I used earlier), there is a paper trail that reveals the thinking of the court. In this case, I don’t imagine anything else will come to light as to the thinking of the CAO. Game over and maybe game on.
This brings us to the whole Bristol Motor Speedway situation. The half full racetrack over the weekend, which I have commented on earlier, apparently struck a nerve with Speedway Motorsports owner Bruton Smith. After earlier statements that the low crowd, about half capacity regardless of what the “official” estimates were, was caused by bad weather (it rained in the morning, but cleared up for the race), the attendance at Saturday’s Nationwide race should have given the brain trust a clue. The near empty campgrounds should have been another clue. Smith has his underlings conduct a Twitter and email poll on what the fans wanted. The result was over 70% of fans not only didn’t like what they saw, but demanded that the track be put back in the configuration it was before the 2007 reconfiguration of the track. Always wanting to give the fans what they want, Smith declared last night that it would be done. How refreshing was that? But the media and some drivers protested. Smith was firm. “The fans are always right,” Smith said. We’ll see if it really happens, but I applaud Smith for listening to fans and not the competitors. Fans pay the bills, and over the weekend, not many were there. Yes, a crowd of 80,000 is pretty good, but in a place built for twice that, it had to hurt.
So for a year that started with a rain out, a big Monday night prime time race that had great ratings, and finally a great facility that appears to be decline. Lots of problems everywhere.
In my opinion, it’s a cop-out to blame everything on the economy as has been done for so long over these last four years. It’s time for the sanctioning body to take the bull by the horns. Bruton Smith reacted swiftly and decidedly, as he always does. It’s time for NASCAR to do the same I hope they do. I think they will, but all is not rosy.
