McDowell’s playoff struggles continue at Richmond

A week removed from an early crash at Darlington, Michael McDowell finished 28th, five laps down, in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.

McDowell had a drive-through speeding penalty during Stage One that caused him to lose a lap. In the final stage, McDowell had another drive-through speeding penalty. McDowell, again, was speeding on pit road while serving his penalty which put him to five laps down.

“The first time I thought, ‘Maybe it was close,’ and then I sped and it was not close, so obviously we missed the configuration on the lights, and then I backed it down again and still sped again,” McDowell stated. “It’s unfortunate.  Everybody did a really good job.  We actually had good speed. ”

McDowell is 38 points behind Alex Bowman – the last driver currently locked into the Round of 12 – heading into the September 18 Round of 16 finale at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET; TV: NBCSN; Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

McDowell finished 20th at Bristol in September – the most recent NASCAR Cup Series race at the paved oval configuration.

SOURCES:
NASCAR
Racing-Reference.Info