Catchfence

It’s safe to say that Michael McDowell’s limited tenure in the Sprint Cup Series with Michael Waltrip Racing last season was a humbling experience.

The same young driver that came as close to stealing the ARCA RE/MAX Series crown from Frank Kimmel as any driver had this decade before Justin Allgaier did it last year, lasted only 20 races before finding himself out of the fold in the MWR Cup stable. His brief stint as a Cup regular was one that will be remembered not for results on track (he cracked the top 25 only five times), but for two spectacular, highlight-reel wrecks that saw the former open-wheeler walk away after flipping his car eight times at Texas and triggering a massive multi-car wreck on the frontstretch at Watkins Glen that sent debris clouds billowing hundreds of feet in any direction.

McDowell had taken the same route as Brent Sherman had only a few years back when he (and his Serta sponsorship) signed with BAM Racing in 2006, going straight from ARCA to Sprint Cup with less than a season of seasoning in the Nationwide Series or Truck ranks…and just like Sherman, failed to survive more than a few months on tour. While McDowell seldom resembled the wreck-waiting-to-happen that Sherman did driving the No. 49 car (check out Sherman’s highlights from Bristol in March of 2006 before disputing that characterization), he also proved to be much over his head driving for an organization that was struggling itself to establish on the Cup circuit.

- Frontstretch.com