Michael McDowell finishes 31st after last-lap crash

Michael McDowell was within half-a-lap of winning the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday.

Positioned as the race leader in the GEICO 500, McDowell threw a block, and another on a charging second-place Brad Keselowski before going for a 360-spin into the outside retaining wall. A crash followed with many of his competitors being collected through the tri-oval.

McDowell was relegated to a 31st-place finish, failing to cross the Start/Finish line.

“Brad is so good at this place and he drug back and I drug back as quick as I could and was able to block that first run that he made, but then when I came down for the second one he was just to my bumper,” McDowell said of the last lap crash.

“I mean barely, barely got me so it’s unfortunate. I hate it for him and I hate it for everybody that was behind that. It’s the last lap at Talladega.”

The weekend featured McDowell earning the pole for the race, his second of the season and his Cup Series career.

Additionally, for the second time in his career, McDowell led the most laps among the competition (36); the other time coming at his win at the Indianapolis Grand Prix last year.

McDowell has posted two Top-10 finishes this season and is 26th in the driver standings, 88 points behind the playoff cutline.

“I’m motivated by our ability to run up there and manage the lanes and do all the things that we did,” McDowell said. “Our car drove really well and took a push well and had a lot of speed, so those are good things, but it’s wadded up in a pile of rubble right now.

“It’s just unfortunate. It’s been a tough stretch here, but we’ve had speed and we’ve run up front and if we keep doing that, we’ll win a race.”