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April 22, 2009
Michael McDowell in the #66 for Prism Motorsports at Talladega
Michael McDowell returns to the Cup Series this weekend at Talladega in the #66 car for Prism Motorsports taking the place of the usual driver, Dave Blaney, who apparently had a family event he wanted to attend (according to Jayski). With McD already going to be at the track anyway since he's racing the #47 for JTG-Daugherty Racing in the Nationwide race and both Prism and JTG being under the Michael Waltrip Racing umbrella - the organization McD raced for last season in Cup - it makes sense that he would be in the #66 this weekend. Since Prism has been purchasing old MWR cars to use this season McD could even end up driving a car he raced last year.
Of course the question is whether this will be a start and park or whether Prism will actually let McD race in this race if he's able to qualify for it. They did race the full Daytona 500 with Terry Labonte but they had a sponsor on the car for that race and I haven't heard anything about there being a sponsor on the car for this race. I'd hope that if they were going to put a young driver with talent behind the wheel they'd actually let him race but McD parked one of their Natiowide cars for them last season. Odds are given that it's so easy to get swept up in a wreck at this track and they may not want to risk losing a car, I'd think that Prism will probably have him park it by 60 laps in. It would be interesting to listen to the radio communication between McD and the team as to whether they'll let him go all out and race it as hard as he wants or whether they'll have him dial it down and just ride around.
Posted by silverdsl at April 22, 2009 10:44 AM