INDIANAPOLIS — You could label Michael McDowell’s Verizon 200 victory a Cinderella story. Sure. The guy who went 0-for-357 won in start 358 at Daytona back in 2021, was coming to Indianapolis 1-for-452.

With a team like Front Row Motorsports who was 3-for-1,271 in their career, to pick up win No. 4 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, beating the juggernaut Hendrick Motorsports who’s won a NASCAR record 297 races and 14 championships head-to-head could classify as a Cinderella story. Maybe even David vs. Goliath.

McDowell vs. Chase Elliott. The 38-year old Arizona native vs. NASCAR’s five-time reigning Most Popular Driver Award recipient. Sure, on the surface this looks like a for script Hollywood movie with a storybook ending.

The driver who hasn’t won a race with his family at the track before. A man with five kids and a supporting wife, went from making ends meet and driving his own motorhome across the country to each race because he was driving for start and park teams and making little money doing so.

He just wanted a shot. Doing this kept his name out there. But it was a sacrifice.

Same for his new crew chief. Expecting a child any day now to make him a dad, he told McDowell to take a shot on him last year when McDowell’s crew chief would be promoted to Hendrick Motorsports for the 2023 season.

“It’s not just do the job, it’s a different fit at Front Row Motorsports,” McDowell said. “You have to be able to do more than one thing. There’s a lot of crew chiefs in the Cup Series that are really good car guys, and there’s a lot of crew chiefs in the series that are really good engineers. We have to have both. We can’t have just one because we don’t have enough people. We don’t have enough depth to just be laser focused on one area or another.

“When I lost my lead engineer to Penske, I knew we had to have an engineer-minded crew chief because we just didn’t have two people to fill the spot.

“You’ve got to do a lot more stuff than most of the people around you have to do, and you’ve got to put in more hours and you’ve got to be willing to do more with less.”

This combination just won at Indy. However, it’s not as unlikely as you’d think.

McDowell grew up racing on road courses. He’s a road racing ace. So, give him a talented crew chief with a Next Gen car, the skies the limit on tracks like this.

“Yeah, I think to me, it all kind of started in 2020 when we were kind of winding up the Gen-6 car and NASCAR had kind of put a moratorium on advancement of the chassis and suspension components,” said Jerry Freeze, GM of Front Row Motorsports. “Once we were able to start getting them on a more level playing field with the product that we were bringing to the racetrack, our performance started to pick up. I think you started to see that a guy like Michael McDowell had a lot of talent.

“Now if you give him the same car that these other guys have, he’s going to really show that he can get it done.

“Then you advance into the Next-Gen era the way they’ve consolidated the practice time, I just think it gives a chance with that middle-tier budget, let’s say, that’s going to do the right things, have the right engine program, hire the good people, have a good pit crew, to have days like this on the racetrack.

“It’s hard to sustain it across a 36-race season, and that’s what we’re just trying to get better at, to be this way week in and week out, to be a top-10 team, to be a top-15 team. I don’t know that we’re quite there as a top-10 team. I do feel like every weekend we’re a solid top-15 team if we just execute our race.

“I think the way the rules have changed and with the Next-Gen car coming in, it’s really kind of played in that mid-sized’s team’s favor that if you’re doing the right things you can be competitive. We’ve just got to keep on investing in those areas to try and improve our team and become a more constant top 10 threat, and when making the Playoffs isn’t such a big story, it’s maybe expected.”

Which is why Freeze doesn’t feel like this is as much of a storybook win as some think.

 “I don’t think so. Like I said to basically dominate the weekend is hardly a Cinderella story,” said Freeze. “We’ve been fortunate, this is the fourth Cup win that Front Row Motorsports has had, and I think you could say that the first three, circumstances kind of played their way into being in the position to get the checkered flag at the end, but this one was just a real butt kicking, and so I’m especially proud of this win.

“We rolled off the truck, we were the fastest car here in practice, fastest in first-round qualifying, qualified fourth, and then Michael just dominated the race today. Michael did a stellar job, but he needed a stellar race car, and Travis gave it to him.

“To be here at Indy and kiss the bricks is something I never would have thought we could have ever accomplished at Front Row Motorsports 15 years ago when I started working for Bob Jenkins. So it’s really neat to be here today and celebrate that win.”

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 and never flinched.

“Absolutely not,” McDowell said on if this was a Cinderella story. “I think we’ve been the fastest road course car since this Next-Gen car over the average of it, and I think statistically it’ll show that. I think if you just look at the average finish and you look at average running position, we’ve been a top 5 car every single road course race since this Next-Gen car has come in.

“Is it a Cinderella story from a lot of different aspects? Maybe. But off of pure performance, like I feel like we’ve been nailing it and having a shot at it.

“But I also look at it as like, we’re going up against some really big teams with a lot of resources, and to do what we did today is pretty awesome.”