Michael McDowell only has two races remaining with Front Row Motorsports. However, before he heads to Spire Motorsports, he will hit an important NASCAR milestone.
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The veteran driver will suit up for his 500th Cup Series start this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. He will become the 47th driver in NASCAR history to reach this milestone. He joins current full-time drivers Kyle Busch (712), Martin Truex Jr. (691), Denny Hamlin (684), Joey Logano (577), and Brad Keselowski (555).
Richard Petty has the most starts in NASCAR history at 1,184. He is the only driver with more than Ricky Rudd's 906 Cup starts.
"It's pretty special to be making my 500th career Cup Series start and to achieve such a big milestone in my career," McDowell said in a statement. "Martinsville was where I got my first ever start back in 2008, so it's cool that it has come full circle to this weekend.
"Just want to thank everyone who has been a part of this journey — team owners, sponsors, and fans — who have supported me all these years."
Unlike Busch, Hamlin, Logano, or Keselowski, McDowell didn't join a top-tier NASCAR team early in his career. Instead, he spent the first several seasons in Cup with a variety of teams that struggled to contend.
McDowell spent 2008-16 driving for such team owners as Michael Waltrip, Tommy Baldwin, Mike Curb, and Phil Parsons. He didn't start more than 33 races in this stretch.
The 2017 season marked the first time that McDowell started every race on the schedule. He drove for Leavine Family Racing and posted a fourth-place finish at Daytona. He then moved to Front Row Motorsports in 2018 and has remained with the Bob Jenkins-owned team ever since.
The early starts with Front Row Motorsports did not feature McDowell in regular contention, but the team continued to put pieces in place while building toward more consistent competitiveness.
While McDowell delivered a Daytona 500 win in 2021, the team did not fully hit its stride until the Next Gen era.
A fitting example of this is the veteran driver's average finish each season. It was 20.5 in 2021, which was a career-best mark. One season later, McDowell posted an average finish of 16.7 despite missing the playoffs. He then won his second career race in 2023.
McDowell missed the playoffs this season but won the pole for the first time in his career. He then won the pole five more times while taking the series lead in this category.
The Arizona native has hit numerous milestones in his NASCAR career, and he will only have more opportunities to do so moving forward. Once he makes his final start in the No. 34 Ford, he will move to Spire Motorsports on a multi-year deal. This will put him within reach of 600 career starts.
