Michael McDowell had one of the strongest cars early on in last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Course.
However, a throttle problem took him out of contention for the win. After the No. 71 fell by the wayside, Shane van Gisbergen dominated and waltzed to his second Cup win of 2025.
Before the throttle problem, McDowell got the better of van Gisbergen on the initial start and first restart and he had a comfortable lead.
Had the problem not happened, would McDowell have contended with the No. 88 for the win?
Frontstretch’s Kevin Nix answers this week’s question for NASCAR Mailbox on Frontstretch’s YouTube channel.
Kevin Nix has been with Frontstretch since February 2023. Hailing from Gilbert, Arizona, his dream is to be in the NASCAR media sphere full-time. He is a video assistant, working on the back end to streamline video and audio quality of all at-track interviews. Nix also writes about news every Monday for the site.
Nix graduated with a Master's Degree in Sports Journalism from ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. He also has bachelor's degrees in Communications and Political Science. In his downtime, he likes to read, play video games and take walks in the Arizona weather - when it's not too hot.