McDowell and 34 team have gains to make at Pocono

​McDowell on Pocono"It’s always fun going to racetracks twice under somewhat similar conditions. A lot of times, we’ll go to somewhere like Phoenix at the beginning of the year and the end of the year, and things are much different. But going to Pocono, it’s not back-to-back, but it doesn’t feel like that big of a break in between. So, I do feel like you can fine-tune. We definitely have some gains to make. We didn’t have a bad finish of 21st in June. I feel like we executed the race well. But that’s a place where I would really like to run in the teens. So, we’re going to have to put a little bit more potential in the car.

"Restarts are intense for sure. A lot of it has to do with what lane you’re in and which lane’s rolling. Sometimes your lane’s not rolling and you really can’t do much. And then other times, you’ll get that opportunity to be aggressive and get three or four spots. And you don’t really know until you get rolling half-way down the straightaway. People start to fan out, and holes open and close.

"It seemed like this year the aggression level is the same, but people are more precise. We’re not having big wrecks anymore like we used to the last two or three years. It seems like people keep the intensity level up without having big issues now. But it’s always fun to get four- or five-wide."

McDowell Pocono Stats
12 starts
Best finish: 18th