Michael McDowell will be racing the No. 00 MWR Toyota Tundra as of this weekend in the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images Photo)n
It isn’t often that the defining moment of a race happens on Friday, but that was exactly the situation with last weekend’s Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
By now, as every serious race fan has seen a hundred times or so and anyone else with a pulse has witnessed at least once, Friday was when NASCAR Sprint Cup rookie Michael McDowell lost control of his Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota entering Turn 1 during qualifying. Traveling at an estimated 187 miles per hour when he lost it, McDowell slammed headfirst into the wall with vicious force. His car then rolled over and proceeded to do eight barrel rolls, shedding parts as it flipped over and over.
And then the most amazing part of the crash happened: McDowell got out of his car, waved to the crowd and spent the rest of the afternoon doing interviews.
Despite the massive impact, McDowell walked away without even a headache, a truly remarkable state of affairs for the 23-year-old Phoenix native. The fact that he was alive, let alone uninjured, was testament to the job NASCAR did in designing the new-generation race car, as well as the combined effectiveness of the SAFER barriers and the HANS device. It almost defies belief to think that any driver could escape injury in a crash as violent as McDowell’s.
So give NASCAR’s new-generation car a grade of A+ for safety, which when it comes right down to it, is probably the most important category that it should be graded on.
In terms of raciness, well, the jury’s still out on that one.
You will be shocked – shocked – to learn that there was a difference of opinion among the drivers about the car following the Samsung 500. Texas winner Carl Edwards, who now has won three of the four Sprint Cup races run so far this season on high-speed intermediate tracks, thought the race was great.
In fact, afterwards, Edwards blasted his fellow drivers for being whiners and wussies and the media for making up stories about how bad the racing is now at high-speed ovals.
Predictably, those who finished behind Edwards, especially runner-up Jimmie Johnson and third-place Kyle Busch, complained bitterly about aero push, not being able to pass and the general evilness of the handling of their respective cars.
Over the final 125 laps, Edwards led all but three laps when green-flag pit stops were cycling through. At times, his lead was as big as nine seconds in what was the least competitive race of the seven run so far. It wasn’t much fun for fans or the drivers other than Edwards.
Asked if this was the kind of racing that the series would be stuck with from now one, Busch snapped, “I am not answering that question. Go to NASCAR to answer that question.”
“Did you enjoy the race today?” Johnson asked reporters. “That's the ultimate judge of it. We are all afraid to run side by side, you can only get so close to the guy in front of and you we just sit there in the same spot and ride because you can't go anywhere.”
Edwards, naturally, was having none of it. “I’m tired of hearing people complain, the media make up stories about how terrible it is and stuff – this is auto racing,” he said. “There are going to be people that are faster. We’re going to have days when we can’t keep up because the car is too hard to drive. Somebody’s going to win. That’s racing.”
That both camps had their respective reactions was wholly predictable. From the time the first auto race took place, winners have liked the way things were, those who trailed didn’t. That’s human nature.
Could NASCAR do something to make these cars race better? Probably.
Could they do it without costing the teams millions in R&D money as they try to adjust to new rules and parameters? Probably not.
Was the Samsung 500 a Texas-sized snoozer? Damn right it was. Put bluntly, the racing was as poor as I’ve seen it in some time.
But you know what? After seeing Michael McDowell climb out of his wrecked race car Friday night, I’m more convinced than ever that NASCAR got the most important part of the new car right. They can keep tuning on the details to improve competition over time, but they got what mattered most right. And that’s as it should be.
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
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