Dale McDowell emerges from his car after winning the LOLMDS race in Bulls Gap.
Dale McDowell wore several racing hats in 2014. He continued to run his driving school, teamed up with David Duplissey as co-owner of Boyd’s Speedway and turned in one of the most successful seasons of his Dirt Late Model driving career.
On the driving side, the highlight of McDowell’s season was his victory in the $100,000-to-win Dirt Late Model Dream at the Eldora Speedway in June. But that was not all for the Chickamauga, Georgia driver. In all, he amassed seven wins including wins in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at the Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. in August and the opening night of the NDRL weekend at the Smoky Mountain Speedway in March.
“We were ecstatic with how everything went,” McDowell declared in a recent telephone interview. “It was different balancing time between the race track and what we were racing and the driving school stuff as well as some of the other programs we’ve got going on. To have a season like we had, we were pleased.”
Even with all that success, McDowell believes there could have been even more wins throughout the season had a few breaks gone his way.
“Obviously, you look back at the ones that got away from you through mechanical failures or some other reason because we were actually in position to have won a couple more,” the driver of the No. 17m Warrior Race Car declared. “But we were very, very satisfied with the way everything went. We’re going to do about the same thing next year so we’re hoping for the same results.”
Due to the many commitments McDowell has, his time to do some racing of his own is limited. He and his crew chief brother Shane work closely with Team Dillon Racing and the development program of that organization tied to NASCAR’s Richard Childress Racing through drivers Austin and Ty Dillon(grandsons of Childress).
Dale McDowell drove his No. 17m to multiple victories in 2014.
“We actually run about thirty races throughout the year, or maybe a little more,” McDowell explained. “Through TDR, they probably ran over a hundred races with the development stuff they were doing.”
McDowell believes that his efforts on the track benefit the entire TDR operation in that the team is able to keep up with the changes at the top levels of the sport.
“Our program enables them to keep up with all the changes in the sport so when Austin and Ty get ready to go run a dirt race, it keeps our program up to the level of standards it takes for all of us to compete with the competition,” the 48-year-old driver pointed out. “That way when they go race, they know their stuff is good. They don’t get to race the dirt cars as much anymore as they used so when they do they want to be competitive. With everything we’re doing there, with Shane running the development shop at TDR, it lets us go play and race at little bit too. Overall, it was a fun year, a busy year, but a fun year.”
