INDIANAPOLIS — Michael McDowell’s win in Sunday’s Verizon 200 was no fluke. This was earned. It’s not the Cinderella story like Daytona was a few years ago. This was on merit.

“Yesterday was just different. When I unloaded yesterday, I felt like, yeah, we’re going to be contenders,” he said.

“If you just look at practice, we were the fastest in practice, fastest five lap, fastest ten lap, fastest average, and I woke up this morning nervous. I really did. I don’t normally wake up nervous. I was anxious, feeling like, I think I have a race-winning car here, and I’ve just got to go do my job and not look like an idiot.”

McDowell didn’t look anything resembling an idiot in Sunday’s race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He battled Daniel Suarez in the opening stage and wound up passing him to score the stage win. While he rode behind Suarez for much of the second stage, he made a pass on the final lap and finished second to Denny Hamlin.

From there on out, he was in the lead on the lead strategy. However, Suarez and Chase Elliott rode in tow.

Last year’s winner Tyler Reddick started on the front row and would have made this a four man fight if not for pit road again.

“We definitely had really good pace in the second half of the race,” Reddick said. “We just didn’t have the best start and weren’t quite as fast in the first half and got behind it. We short-pitted them, but we had a slow stop, and weren’t in position to lunge them off of pit road, and that was kind of the story. We didn’t have a chance to get back around Daniel (Suarez). We could drop off about 10 car lengths and get right back to his bumper. Our SiriusXM Toyota Camry TRD was better, but not good enough to complete the pass. I think AJ Allmendinger with much fresher tires had to push really hard to get around Daniel, so that is the story of it – just unfortunately, hard to pass.”

When McDowell led Suarez and Elliott down pit road for the final time on Lap 49, it turned this race around a bit. Suarez had problems on his stop dropping him from second to third, nine seconds back.

“We win as a team and lose as a team,” Daniel Suarez boasted after finishing a disappointing third in Sunday’s Verizon 200. “The guys brought a very fast race car. I felt that maybe we were one adjustment behind in the first run with the back of the car, but then we made it a little bit better.

“But I felt like I was always one step behind the 9 and the 34, and then at the end, I felt that when my car came alive again.”

It was just too little too late. He gained 4 seconds but was 5.750-seconds behind at the end.

That set up a battle between McDowell and Elliott. With a clean race, McDowell knew something was bound to happen at any time, so he drove conservatively.

“I was really trying to pace myself,” said McDowell. “I figured there would be a late-race caution, and I didn’t want to burn my stuff up. I was just trying to maintain that gap.”

Then he hit lapped traffic. It caused him to have to push more because Elliott started cutting into his lead.

“Then when I got into traffic, started closing, I had to push it,” McDowell continued.

Elliott admitted that he too was trying to save his stuff early on in that stint.

“Yeah, I lost too much ground under that pit cycle and was trying to pace myself for the long haul,” Elliott admitted. “It kind of had that green flag feel.”

When McDowell hit traffic, Elliott would too. McDowell just got through it cleaner he said.

“I thought I just needed to do a better job getting through traffic there,” he said.

But he did eventually do so and chased McDowell hard in the closing laps. He was trying to push McDowell into a mistake. McDowell didn’t flinch.

“Just to be a little better through the back half over there and get off of 14 a little better just to have myself in a better spot getting into 1,” Elliott said.

“Just really appreciate the effort, man. Our Napa Chevy was really good, really good.

“Just needed just a little bit more and came up a bit short. But congrats to Michael, man. He did a good job. Ran a great race and stayed mistake free, and that’s what you’ve got to do to win.”

McDowell is an excellent road racer and the best car with the best driver won today.

“I’m sorry that it was a boring race for the fans,” he boasted.