Kevin Harvick: Michael McDowell 'panicked' before hitting wall at Texas

Michael McDowell had a great opportunity to win Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway. At the very least, a much-needed top five was on the table.

He led the race with under 10 to go, before losing the lead to Joey Logano. McDowell went for an ambitious block but was unable to hold off Logano. With three laps to go, McDowell hit the outside wall coming off Turn 2. McDowell, who was running third at the time, “panicked” in that moment, FOX Sports‘ Kevin Harvick said on his “Happy Hour” podcast.

“He ultimately got a little bit tight off of Turn 2 [and] Logano got the run,” Harvick said. “I felt like he panicked at that point, personally, and put that huge block on him. I know that they said he was going for it, but I felt like he had another chance going into Turns 3 and 4 with a good side draft and being able to have a chance to defend himself through 3 and 4. But ultimately, with the way that all worked out, then he winds out crashing, got loose and overcorrected, the car snapped and hit the fence.”

Kevin Harvick honest about Michael McDowell’s decision at Texas

McDowell is one of many drivers on the playoff cutline. He’s now 26 points off pace after finishing 26th at Texas. McDowell has shown to have the speed to compete this season, and Harvick believes this wasn’t the time to make a big move.

“At that point, he’s running third. Right now, he’s 26 points out of the cutoff line,” Harvick said. “I don’t feel they were in a position to panic at that point. Feel like he needed to capitalize off a top five day and you’re right on from where you need from the bubble. I don’t know, I know there’s a lot of things that happened, you want to win a race right there and you want to throw caution to the wind.

“But he’s got another route to put himself in position and capitalize off a top five day. Instead, he winds up in the fence just trying so hard and I get it. He wants to be in position to win races, but I think with the speed of their cars, they’re going to have opportunities to do that again. Not capitalizing on those points from a top five day and the momentum of a top five day and taking a wrecked racecar back, I think he just got ambitious.”

Michael McDowell: ‘We had to go for it’

From McDowell’s perspective, this was his chance to automatically qualify for the playoffs. He went for it and it didn’t work out.

“We were giving it everything we had there to try to keep track position,” McDowell said after the race. “Joey [Logano] got a run there, and I tried to block it. I went as far as I think you could probably go. When [Ryan] Blaney slid in front of me, it just took the air off of it and I just lost the back of it. I still had the fight in me, but I probably should have conceded at that point. Just proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports.

“I know that’s not the day that we wanted, but we had the opportunity to win the race. I’m really proud of everyone at the Hendrick Motorsports engine shop – you guys saw those restarts, the motors were ripping. Just hate that we didn’t get it done, but we knew we had to go for it.”