INDIANAPOLIS — Front Row Motorsports has come a long way in their journey as a NASCAR Cup Series team. Unfortunately for them, success is a double edge sword. Too much usually leads key personnel going to other, bigger teams. A perfect example of this is Blake Harris.

As Michael McDowell’s crew chief a season ago, Harris helped guide McDowell to the best season of his career. 12 top 10 finishes was a career mark. His previous best was 5. An average finish of 16.7 also shattered his best mark too.

Which is why despite just one season, Harris was plucked away by Hendrick Motorsports to replace the departing Greg Ives in becoming Alex Bowman’s crew chief.

Also, McDowell’s engineer was poached by Team Penske too. Basically, outside of the driver, the 34 Cup team at FRM was starting over.

Now, here they are – playoff bound.

That’s all due to a perfect scenario and a test that McDowell put the crew chief candidates though last year.

“Yeah, so I have a lot of freedom and flexibility at Front Row Motorsports, obviously, and so when I met with Travis, I met him for lunch, I had a pretty short list of guys that I felt like could do the job,” McDowell admitted.

Peterson was one of them. A veteran that no one chose to name was another. McDowell knew he had a tough decision to make so he put them through the grinder.

That’s because he knows that FRM operates differently than other teams. You have to try and out kick the coverage by working harder with less.

“It’s not just do the job, it’s a different fit at Front Row Motorsports,” McDowell continued. “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.

“When I met with him (Peterson) after coming off of Blake (Harris), who was a car guy, very little engineering experience, I’m like, oh, this is the opposite of what I just had and had success, but this is what I need.”

With Peterson checking the right boxes, did he have what it takes competitively?

“All I was doing was just to see if he had the fire, because if you don’t have fire, you’ll never make it at Front Row Motorsports,” McDowell continued. “You just won’t. You have to be a fighter, because it’s hard. 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.

“So I was just seeing if I could piss him off a little bit, and he was fiery, and that’s what I wanted. I wanted somebody that was fiery.

“I met with five or six guys, and I left that lunch, like this is my guy. If I can get him, this is my guy. I just felt it in my gut, felt it in my heart.”

“I think that for us, our dynamic is really good. We work really closely together. He challenges me and I challenge him. Neither one of us are offended, which is a big part of it, because I can be fairly offensive. Y’all don’t get to see that side of it, but behind closed doors and in meetings I am fiery.

“I think that’s what it takes to take it to the next level, and he has that. That’s cool.

“It’s been a good combination.”

As far as what Peterson said? He’s not 100% sure. However, he does remember one statement that may have sealed his fate.

“Yeah, I can’t speak to how I convinced him, but I do remember making one comment to him about why do guys keep hiring experienced crew chiefs instead of taking a risk on a guy who knows what his potential could be,” Peterson said of a comment that he made to McDowell when they two were at to lunch for an interview. “I do feel like that might have resonated with him because he liked that comment, and he felt that about himself at times throughout his career.

“He was just talking about doing his due diligence and interviewing other people, and I don’t remember if I asked him who else, and he actually told me because we’re both really honest people, like just overly honest about most things, and he — I don’t remember what he said, if there was some other older crew chief, and I was just like hey, man, let me ask you an honest question, right, and it kind of has led into the relationship we have, just, hey, this is what I think, here’s my thoughts, and no sugar coating it.”

This could be a special combination that could lead to even more success in the future – so long as he stays. We know McDowell will be back in 2024 and he’d love to have Peterson back too. But this is a different beast this business and with winning Indy, other teams see that and Peterson could therefore become a hot commodity to a bigger team too.