McDowell Shines in Debut with Tom's Snacks Toyota

Daytona, February 16, 2009: Michael McDowell got his 2009 NASCAR season off to a solid start with a 14th place finish at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday. He started the race from the 42nd position and put on an exciting performance as he worked his way into the top 10 by the race's mid-point.

McDowell commented “This was great day for both Tom’s and JTG Daugherty Racing. It’s our first outing together and just excited. We knew that we had a car that could race well. We just needed some help out there. We knew we were going to struggle in qualifying. We started shotgun on the field and drove our way to the top-20 pretty quickly. We knew we had a piece. We just needed to put ourselves in position and we did that at the end. Man, these pit stops were phenomenal. I am looking forward to heading to California next week so that we can get a top 5 finish.”

The 23 year old Glendale Arizona native was also aided all day by lightning fast pit stops from the #47 "Snack Attack" pit crew.

Crew Chief Gene Nead, who is no stranger to winning NASCAR Championships, reflected on a solid day. "You always want to win, but when you don't, you need to leave Daytona with a finish that provides a solid points position for a year-end championship run. Michael and all the folks who work on this #47 team did a solid job and gave us a good start to a long season ahead."

McDowell is now 14th in NASCAR Nationwide Series points.