DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The next race on the Nationwide Series schedule is in Chicago. But the driver currently 11th in the points won't be making the trip, unless something surprising happens.

Michael McDowell's 16-race deal with JTG Daugherty Racing is finished after Friday night's Subway Jalapeno 250, and barring a last-minute reprieve from out of the blue, he'll be on the outside looking in for the rest of the year.

"As of right now, this is our last race," McDowell said. "We won't be going to Chicago unless we come up with some funding. We knew that going into the season that Daytona would be our last race unless we did secure funding. I think we're overachieving with what we've done this year and being 11th in the points, just out of the top 10. I feel like we've done a good job for the limited time we've had."

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I'm disappointed, for sure, but at the same time, you have to take the good with the bad. This sport has a lot of ups and downs. I'm just happy that we were able to run as many races as we did.

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-- MICHAEL MCDOWELL

McDowell put together top-10 finishes at Las Vegas, Richmond and Nashville and finished 14 of his 16 starts. But for the second time in as many seasons, McDowell winds up with a premature ending to his season. In 2008, he drove in 20 races for Michael Waltrip Racing before being replaced after failing to qualify at Kansas.

"I'm disappointed, for sure, but at the same time, you have to take the good with the bad," McDowell said. "This sport has a lot of ups and downs. I'm just happy that we were able to run as many races as we did. In January, this team only had [sponsorship for] four races and I didn't have any. So we were both able to benefit from this situation and build good relationships, and who knows what the future holds."

Racing can be physically demanding, but McDowell admits the mental aspect of the sport is just as hard to keep under control.

"Being in a ride, being out of a ride, with different teams, it's ups and downs all the time," McDowell said. "Especially for guys like myself, and a handful of others, who are just trying to break into the sport. It's part of what we signed up for. [All you can do] is work as hard as you can and that's really all you can do."

Co-owner Brad Daugherty said the decision to shutter the team had little to do with performance. Instead, it was a matter of allocation of resources, trying to stretch a limited amount of sponsorship money across two programs.

"We had an original agreement that we were going to run 16 races and see where things fell," Daugherty said. "Michael's done a really good job over that time. We didn't really have a lot of opportunity to procure sponsorship as we've been moving along. So it looks like it's going to come to an end.

"We're really trying to concentrate hard on our Cup effort, so it didn't make sense from a business model to take from that effort financially to keep this going. If somebody wants to come along and look at the opportunity, we'll be glad to do it, but this is what we planned on doing and we knew when we got to this point, it was going to be tough on everyone."

And for McDowell, he appreciated the chance, and hopes there's another opportunity out there.

"Tad and Jodi [Geschickter] and Brad, they've been great to work for, and if we can continue the relationship, continue moving forward, we will," McDowell said. "I hope that's mutual on both ends. And they're very understanding that if there's an opportunity that comes up, they want me to stay out there on the race track as much as I want them to. If there's a driver out there who can bring funding to the program and keep it going, then that's great for everybody.

"It's not so much about breaking ties and moving on, it's more of keeping the cars and drivers on the track. Come 2010, if there's a sponsorship and everything's in place, then maybe we can move forward."