Sports greatest moments often times come from surprise and a Cinderella slipper. Throughout the return of sports in pandemic we have seen favorite like the Dodgers, Lightning, Lakers, and Tom Brady win championships. Following that trend it would almost feel expected that Denny Hamlin would prevail as the favorite at Daytona and take home his 3rd straight Daytona 500. However, Michael McDowell had other ideas.
At 100-1 McDowell was one of the longest shots to win Daytona and led just one lap, the final lap, to do so. He joined The DA Show on Tuesday Morning.
“I was just thinking, I think we just won the Daytona 500! I'm not sure yet. I was like if we didn't win this Daytona 500, I'm going to be so upset, you know, because we were. We were so close and to have them say, you know 34 car pulled the Victory Lane. It's just man, it was just so much emotion that runs through. It was unbelievable.”- McDowell said of the feeling of winning.
As far as where the trophy is? Mcdowell isn’t letting it go:
“Right now it's sitting next to me. If you all had video I would show it to you. I mean, it's 5 inches away from me. That's where it's going to be for the next 30 days, Or the next 30 years. I feel like that's the type of thing that you never let go of.” – McDowell added. Which is slightly different than the way Tom Brady treats his trophies these days.
For McDowell, he sent a reminder during this pandemic that happy times still await, and dreams do come true.