The story of Michael McDowell’s career with sports cars, open wheel, and NASCAR is known enough at this point, but how about those really early days? The ones before he was given a chance to race professionally. We’re digging into that today, starting with his connection to Las Vegas; insight on the west coast racing scene; starting off with BMX bikes; not being a racing family but a car culture family and still finding his way into racing; describing the world of competitive karting; the lessons from karting that stay with a young driver; filling in some blanks from his early career that led to sports cars, open wheel, and then NASCAR; how deep being a driver coach goes throughout his career and life; a story about Jimmie Johnson from back in the day when driver coaching; working with drivers in NASCAR for road courses; mechanical learning through tinkering and the passing it forward notion; going full circle with recently bringing his son to the Bondurant driving school; keeping the kids away from racing; the family dynamic of the McDowell kids understanding and sharing in what dad does for a living; the part of his story that McDowell wants known or feels is important.  

Original music created by Tony Monge. 

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