A driver shifting on from a race workforce is loads like graduating from college. On the 12 months’s finish, loaned objects want returning and lockers cleaned out. Sooner or later, the open-door coverage ends and the keycard entry denied.
Entrance Row Motorsports and Michael McDowell are going via that transition. McDowell spent seven seasons driving for workforce proprietor Bob Jenkins and common supervisor Jerry Freeze, piloting the group’s flagship No. 34 Love’s Ford Mustang. However he signed with Spire Motorsports for the 2025 season.
On Friday after the finale at Phoenix, McDowell was making the rounds on the Mooresville, North Carolina store. There have been nonetheless some hats and garments to take from his locker within the hauler. And even a big canvas portray hanging on the wall.
“Oh, that is going to be actual dangerous taking this off,” McDowell cracked.
The connection between Entrance Row and McDowell stays as robust as ever. Either side wanted one another once they got here collectively in 2018. Entrance Row wanted a driver to assist stabilize this system that includes their greatest sponsor. McDowell was at a crossroads in his profession after being changed by Kasey Kahne at Leavine Household Racing.
“When he got here alongside, it was actually good timing,” Freeze tells RACER. “We had been making an attempt to construct our program up. He was searching for a house. I knew we had been getting greater than only a driver when he walked within the door. He wished to be concerned in every part we had occurring, which was good. It was good as an alternative of getting the drivers cruise via each Tuesday saying hey to everyone, and you then see them on the racetrack.
“Michael was extra engaged than others. He actually helped elevate the bar at Entrance Row throughout the board and actually challenged us to enhance our processes and get higher folks once they had been out there. He actually helped push issues alongside.”
The workforce gained the Daytona 500 in 2021. It was the primary triumph for each the driving force and the workforce within the sport’s greatest race, the third win for the group, and the second time incomes a postseason berth. McDowell then had a profession 12 months in 2022 with single-season excessive marks in top-10 finishes (12).
The 2023 season introduced a victory on the Indianapolis street course and a career-high Fifteenth-place end within the championship standings – a career-high for each McDowell and the group.
In the meantime, Todd Gilliland grew into his place within the different Entrance Row automobile. Gilliland has earned eight top-10 finishes over the past two seasons and completed twenty second within the championship standings.
“I’ll at all times recognize what he delivered to the desk,” Freeze says of McDowell.
Entrance Row has recognized McDowell can be leaving since early spring. Quickly after, the identical may very well be mentioned for McDowell’s crew chief, Travis Peterson. The steadiness grew to become wanting the workforce to succeed the rest of the 12 months however not have the 2 stroll out the door “with each secret” Entrance Row has.
Freeze admitted it was difficult. It was enterprise as standard via the summer time, however the final a part of the season noticed isolation begin for many who wouldn’t return to the group subsequent 12 months. The conferences about future instructions, applied sciences and companions had been off-limits.
On the advertising and marketing facet, Entrance Row wished to be out entrance with their companions, reminiscent of Love’s, concerning the future. Love’s has supplies with McDowell’s likeness that have to be adjusted.
How about fan mail? It seems that by no means stops displaying as much as the race store, even when a driver leaves. Freeze expects not less than 12 to 18 months or longer of amassing McDowell items that have to be forwarded alongside.
“We’ll get race followers who ship stuff for drivers who haven’t pushed right here in over 10 years,” Freeze says. “We’ll get one or two items yearly of stuff for Jimmy Means, who Bob was companions with on the very incarnation of Entrance Row Motorsports in 2005. However I’ve obtained Jimmy’s deal with, and I’ll ship them to him. David Ragan nonetheless comes by a couple of times a 12 months as a result of we’ll have a variety of David Ragan stuff to signal, and he is aware of individuals are sending it right here.”
It’s a cut up between what Entrance Row owns and can get again from McDowell and what the driving force introduced. McDowell owns his racing seats and can take these with him. Entrance Row, nonetheless, paid for the seat inserts. However as they haven’t any use for them, they’ll be given to McDowell.
Entrance Row will get again a pill or laptop computer, which drivers use for SMT or different data-driven work and research. The Ford program automobile has already been returned.
However there are not any deadlines set on McDowell to get issues carried out.
“It’s so familial (with us) that he was telling me when he was going to carry stuff again, so it’s like he’s nonetheless part of the workforce,” Freeze says. “We’re not too heavy-handed. If we’d like one thing again, we’ll holler.
“I’ve needed to chase down program autos and ship a repo workforce to a driver’s home to get it as a result of we would have liked it for anyone else they usually hadn’t had an opportunity to get it again to us. I assume in case you’re actually mad at somebody, you’d need every part again the Monday after Phoenix, however I don’t assume we’ve come throughout that scenario but.”
The automobile return was one thing Freeze and McDowell laughed about.
“He mentioned, ‘I considered once I picked up this system automobile you guys first gave me and the (earlier) driver had left some trash luggage within the again with some soiled diapers,’” Freeze chuckles. “So, he mentioned he did a greater job returning the automobile than how he obtained it.”
McDowell has since up to date his social media profiles and has appeared in Spire Motorsports movies. However he’s not carried out with Entrance Row Motorsports simply but. Though he’s erased his existence from the place, McDowell is anticipated to attend the group’s Christmas celebration and deal with the workforce one final time.
“It’s been an incredible journey, and although this chapter is coming to an finish, that is household to me,” McDowell says. “It at all times shall be.”
