McDowell 'would have won the race' if not for Chicago throttle cable issue

Michael McDowell was not around at the end of Sunday’s race in Chicago to see if he would have contended for the race win due to a broken throttle cable, but the Spire Motorsports driver doesn’t wonder what could have been.

“I know what would have happened,” McDowell told RACER. “We would have won the race.”

McDowell and the No. 77 Chevrolet team were the class of the field through the first stage and then some on the Chicago street course. He took the lead on the start from polesitter Shane van Gisbergen and led every lap in the first stage. It was early in the second stage, as McDowell was still leading, the throttle became an issue.

The throttle stuck under caution as McDowell rode behind the pace car. He made it to pit road, where the team went to work under the hood.

“Yeah, I feel like we had control ... the whole race, and I think it would have been a battle, no doubt,” McDowell said of the sinking feeling when knowing something was wrong. “I felt like anytime I needed to open a gap on [van Gisbergen], I could, and I was working our strategy. We knew we were going to one-stop, so I was taking care of the tires and doing all the things, and behind the pace car [the] throttle stuck wide open.

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“Luckily, I got to the switches fast enough before I ran into something, and then the cable broke after that.”

Travis Peterson, McDowell’s crew chief, had the team pack the car full of fuel and put fresh tires on it. The plan was to try to make a new strategy play work, while having McDowell be as conservative as possible. McDowell was worried, however, that it might not last since his quick reaction was to shove the clutch in and shut the car off.

Soon enough, he was back on pit road because the issue persisted. The team then pushed the car behind the wall to repair the broken cable throttle, which put him multiple laps down and officially out of contention. McDowell finished 32nd and van Gisbergen went on to win the race.

“It’s a shame,” McDowell said. “We had a great car, but it is what it is. We’ve got good momentum going into Sonoma, and we know what we have to do.”