McDowell's virtual M'ville preparing him for real track

The first time Michael McDowell ever saw the half-mile speedway in Salem, Ind., he posted the fastest lap of practice his very first time around. Two weeks later, in his first trip to the legendary short track in Winchester, Ind., he not only won the pole but broke a 10-year-old track record. The next week at Kentucky Speedway, it was the same story -- fast off the truck, and a pole position in his first time there.

Autostock

Michael McDowell

Sprint Cup Series

Owner Points, Pos. 27-35

Pos.	Car	Points	Behind
27.	No. 00	461	-321
28.	No. 15	449	-333
29.	No. 28	428	-354
30.	No. 55	402	-380
31.	No. 96	386	-396
32.	No. 70	374	-408
33.	No. 5	368	-414
34.	No. 44	367	-415
35.	No. 77	356	-426

• Owner Points

At first, he figured it was a coincidence. But as the poles and the fast laps began to pile up, McDowell began to realize it was something else. All that training he was doing at home was paying off.

He had never been to places like Salem or Winchester, but he had made hundreds of laps around those racetracks on the driving simulator installed at his house. That's one reason why McDowell, in his first year driving a stock car, was able to so quickly adapt on the ARCA circuit, where he won four races, nine poles, and finished second in final championship points. He's using the same approach as he nears his Sprint Cup debut this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, where he's never made a lap in a NASCAR racecar. But he's made more than 700 circuits around the half-mile track on the monitor at home.

"The simulator really helps in where you're going to lift, how much brake pressure you're going to use," said McDowell, 23, who takes over the No. 00 car at Michael Waltrip Racing being vacated by David Reutimann, who is sliding over to Dale Jarrett's old No. 44. "The only thing you don't get is, you don't get the seat of the pants, the car is going to slide out [feeling]. It's visual. But for me, I've been using gaming and simulation for so long that I've been able to adapt to what's real and what's not real. I think it's a huge help."

It's not exactly PlayStation 3. McDowell uses a PC-based simulator with a racing wheel, racing seat, foot pedals and a monitor large enough to resemble the windshield of a car. The results were evident last year, when McDowell shot to the top of the ARCA ranks with no previous stock-car experience. The Phoenix native thought his career path would lead to open-wheel cars -- he has an extensive sports-car background, and he raced go-karts in Europe against future Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg -- but after two starts in Champ Car, the funding fell apart. He wound up in ARCA with Eddie Sharp Racing through a contact with Chip Ganassi's team.

It was there he caught the eye of the Waltrip organization, which had developmental driver Josh Wise already in Sharp's stable. MWR officials were impressed with McDowell's skill as well as a technical acumen honed during his open-wheel days. They liked the input he was able to give from the driver's seat, as well as his ability to apply what he learned on the simulator to the racetrack. (Continued)