Watkins Glen Race Recap

McDowell Scores Career-Best Tenth Top-10 of Season

Gilliland Suffers Mechanical Failure While Leading Race

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Front Row Motorsports (FRM) rolled into Watkins Glen International for the NASCAR Cup Series 90-lap event around the 2.45-mile road course.

The race started off wet, as rain swept in over the race track moments before the field was set to take the green. In the early stages of the event, both McDowell and Gilliland would find themselves leading the field as strategy worked in the FRM driver's favor.

Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Love's Travel Stops/Delo Ford finished Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series in sixth. Todd Gilliland and the No.38 Morristown Driver's Service (MDS) team suffered a mechanical failure from the lead in Stage Two. They were credited with 38th.

After a fourth-place finish the last time the No. 38 team visited a road course, Todd Gilliland felt confident heading into Sunday's race at Watkins Glen. The MDS Ford Mustang qualified inside the top-20, setting Gilliland up to make gains early in the race.

As the green flag was displayed to start the wet 90-lap event, Gilliland quickly found himself making up positions in the opening laps. By Lap Five, Gilliland was racing just outside the top-10. The No. 38 Ford Mustang was one of the fastest cars on wet tires and was fourth across the line in Stage One. When the field took the green to start Stage Two, Gilliland was out front leading and pulling away. He was the fastest car on the track before a fluke break in the axle ended the promising run."

"We had a fast MDS Ford Mustang from the drop of the green flag," said Gilliland. "It was great to be able to work our way up to the front and lead some laps in front of some of the best road course racers in the world. Unfortunately, we had an issue in the axle that ended our run early. I'm bummed because we had a great race going."

Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Love's Travel Stops/Delo Ford Mustang team were primed and ready for a good day after qualifying third. As the green flag dropped, McDowell quickly jumped out in the lead and remained out front for a majority of the first stage before pitting for dry tires.

McDowell battled inside the top-five for most of the 90-lap race, comfortably holding third before a few late race cautions within 10 laps to go. With laps winding down, McDowell would get shuffled back from contact with another car in Turn One. The Love's Travel Stops/DELO team finished in the sixth position.

"It is disappointing," said McDowell after the race. "I don't think we quite had enough for the 9 or the 5. I tried to hold them off as long as I could, they just had a bit of pace on me. They were pushing me hard enough that I was getting wide and making mistakes. I tried to make a move on that second-to-last restart there and got a pretty good run on the 5 and went to the inside and it just didn’t work out.

"We got jammed up on the bottom and everyone was smashing into each other and we lost a couple of spots. That was pretty much it at that point. It is just disappointing. We’ve gotta win to get into these playoffs.

"But I am proud of everybody at Front Row. We had a fast car and we were in the hunt. It just wasn’t quite enough.”

FRM now heads to the Daytona International Speedway this weekend to close out the regular season this Saturday night.

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ABOUT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup and Camping World Truck Series and the 2021 Daytona 500 champions. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by successful entrepreneur, Bob Jenkins. FRM fields the No. 34 and the No. 38 NASCAR Cup Series teams along with the No. 38 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team– from its Mooresville, N.C. headquarters. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on social media: Twitter at @Team_FRM, Instagram at @team_frm and Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports.

-30- TEAM CONTACTS: Michael McDowell John Dragonetti E-mail: jdragonetti@frontrowmotorsports.com Mobile: 704-578-9937 Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith Chris Murdock Mobile: 740-861-4534 E-Mail: cmurdock@frontrowmotorsports.com