While it wasn’t a win, Michael McDowell achieved a massive points day in Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez with a fifth-place performance. The driver of the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet scored the second-most points (45) of any driver in the field.
The end result was good, but McDowell was left wondering what could have been as a strategy call to run long during a green flag pit cycle didn’t pan out as the caution came out for a spinning Carson Hocevar on Lap 65 before McDowell could get to pit road. This would put the driver of the No. 71 Chevrolet back around the 15th position heading into the final restart of the race with 32 laps remaining in the event.
“Overall, it was a great day for the No. 71 B’laster Chevrolet team. We’re bummed out,” McDowell said after the race. “Our Chevrolet was fast. I felt like our strategy was going to work out there. We were just a few laps away from it working out, but unfortunately, the caution came out. It happens. You can’t plan for everything.”
However, despite the disappointment, McDowell and his race team, who have fought back from several rough situations in 2025, came out swinging once again on Sunday in Mexico City. After scoring his first top-five finish of the season, McDowell feels confident in the speed that has been building in his Spire Motorsports machines in recent weeks.
“But I feel like we did a great job of coming back up through the field from restarting 15th there in the last stage. Proud of the effort and proud of the speed. We needed a little bit more, but it’s something to build on,” McDowell explained. “If we keep building here at Spire Motorsports, we’ll get a win. It’s good to be bummed with a top-five finish. I felt like we had more today, and hopefully we’ll get a chance to prove that when we get to the upcoming road courses. Mexico City was a lot of fun. It was a cool weekend and a cool race track.”
On the strength of Sunday’s performance, which included the driver collecting 13 Stage Points, McDowell vaulted from 23rd in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings to 16th. The 40-year-old now sits 18th on the Playoff Grid, 43 points outside of the cutline with 10 races remaining until the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin.
McDowell, who is a road course racing virtuoso of sorts, will have three more road course races over the final 10 races of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, as well as a 400-mile event at Daytona International Speedway, where he captured the 2021 Daytona 500 victory. With the schedule that lies ahead, there’s a very real chance that McDowell can accumulate enough points over the final stretch of races in the regular season to advance himself into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field.
