GPS: God. People. Stories.
From murderers to missionaries and actors to athletes, people from all walks of life have life-changing encounters with God. Listen to them share their stories here.
GPS: God. People. Stories.
Fiery Crash Changes NASCAR Driver Michael McDowell’s Faith
Driving fast is something Michael McDowell has done since he was a child. He began racing go-karts when he was eight, and since then he's gone on to win the Daytona 500 in 2021 and the Brickyard 200 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2023.
While he chases track wins with fierce determination, Michael pursues Jesus Christ with even more passion. Listen as he talks about the highs and lows of his life and career—and how a scary wreck impacted his faith.
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Michael McDowell:
[00:00:00] I went straight into the wall at probably 180 to 185 miles an hour with not a whole lot of slowing down before I hit it. And I remember when it turned right thinking, oh, this is going to hurt.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:00:17] That spectacular crash proved to be the pivotal event in NASCAR driver Michael McDowell’s faith journey. You’re going to hear him talk more about the crash and his life on and off the track on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I’m Jim Kirkland. Michael regularly drives around racetracks at nearly 200 miles per hour. And there’s a purpose to it. But Billy Graham says…
Billy Graham:
[00:00:46] I find that millions are traveling on the highway of life. They have no goals, no purpose, no meaning in their life.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:00:55] You’ll hear Billy Graham explain how you can find goals, purpose, and meaning in your life a little later in the episode or find it anytime at our website, FindPeacewithGod.net. That’s FindPeacewithGod.net. If you didn’t catch the address, no worries. You can always find the link in our show notes.
Audio tag:
[00:01:16]
Jim Kirkland:
[00:01:22] On February 14th, 2021, Michael McDowell got into his race car at the season opening Daytona 500 thinking this might be the day he gets his first win.
Michael McDowell: [00:01:34] I go into every race hopeful that today’s the day. Like today’s the day we’re going to win. Today’s the day it’s going to come together.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:01:40] Even before the race started, Michael had a strong sense that he was going to be third on the last lap. And that’s exactly what happened after a rain delay had pushed the race well into the night.
Michael McDowell:
[00:01:52] You know, 12:00 in the morning, the white flag comes out. And I’m sitting third behind two Penske cars. And so, did I know I was going to win? I wouldn’t say that I knew it, but I had a strong intuition that this is how it’s going to play out. And this is what I needed to be prepared for.
Jim Kirkland: [00:02:08] His intuition was right. After 16 years in NASCAR and 358 careers start, Michael McDowell gets his first win at the Daytona 500 that night. But it was not an easy road to get there.
Michael McDowell:
[00:02:23] I thought that I would get my first win in the first couple of races. I really did. I mean, I did not think it would take a lifetime to get there. But when I did get there and it being the Daytona 500 and the biggest race and the one that everybody chases, and that’s my first one. It wasn’t that, oh, we finally did it. It was more like I just felt like God allowed me to experience something so cool.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:02:48] Michael credits God’s provision for everything about his career in NASCAR.
Michael McDowell: [00:02:52] I literally needed God to provide, and He would. There would be that next step, and the next step, and the next step. And so, that was like that really my whole career. Maybe the last four or five years that’s changed a little bit, but every year has been like that where I’ve needed God to provide that opportunity for me to keep moving forward and keep going. And early on, I didn’t understand that. I didn’t know what that meant.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:03:20] Michael was raised in a modest home in Glendale, Arizona. He doesn’t recall going to church with his family other than maybe on the holidays like Easter and Christmas.
Michael McDowell:
[00:03:30] I grew up in a safe home with two loving parents that taught me the difference between right and wrong, and how to treat people, and be respectful and kind. And so, all biblical principles but no tie back to faith.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:03:43] Instead, Michael and his older brother quickly became tied to racing on the weekends.
Michael McDowell:
[00:03:49] Just like anything when you’re young, it starts out as just like a fun hobby. You know, a lot of kids played sports, right, in T-ball, and football, and soccer, and those things. My brother and I, we really didn’t do that. You know, we started racing BMX bikes, and then dirt bikes, and quads.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:04:05] When Michael was eight, he got into go kart racing.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:04:08] That’s when it became very real that this was a passion and something I was good at and was excelling at. From that point forward, it’s been a progression towards a career in motorsports. I don’t think, you know, at eight years old that was the plan. But I can tell you for sure by the time I was 11, it was the plan. Like I knew this was what I was going to do and had my mind set on, you know, making this work.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:04:35] To make it work, to realize his dream of racing go karts around the country and maybe even around the world, Michael needed money.
Mm
[00:04:44] Motorsports, your ability is directly limited by how fast your car is, how fast your engines are, how many tires you have. It’s a very expensive sport that has a lot of moving parts equipment wise. And for my parents, they did everything they could possibly do, but there was no way that they were going to be able to fund my career. And so, it became very real at a very early age that I had to learn the business aspect of racing and understand what I could possibly do to, one, either generate sponsorship or, two, generate value to be able to keep racing. You know, I was super fortunate. My brother was always an entrepreneur, super savvy, outside of the box thinker. And you know, he really came up with a business that allowed us to do that.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:05:36] This is how his brother’s business worked. Michael would race a go kart on Sunday. And then on Monday, he would sell it.
Michael McDowell:
[00:05:44] We would build a kart. And then, we’d win the race. And somebody would buy it. And then, we’d build another one, and they would buy. Before you knew it, we had developed a pretty cool business locally where we had our own go kart shop, our own engine shop. And we were taking care of customer’s karts and selling parts and pieces. And that really is what sustained me through my karting career was I was working at the shop doing all the builds, and he was working the business and making it happen. And without that, I don’t think I would have kept progressing in my career.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:06:15] It would have been considered a successful business for a couple of brothers who was of any age. But think about this. Michael and his brother were only 12 and 15.
Michael McDowell:
[00:06:25] Just like anything, it started out small. And before we knew it, we had a big shop and a big trailer. And we had other employees. It became, um, a pretty big operation in a short period of time. And by the time I was supposed to be going into high school, I was already working there full-time and taking care of everybody’s stuff. And so, I ended up traveling to Europe and racing and not going to high school and doing home schooling and home correspondence.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:06:52] Michael would do his schooling on the road. That allowed him to work at the shop during the week, race on the weekends, and continue traveling. But even with the shop money, Michael needed more funding for his racing.
Michael McDowell:
[00:07:04] There was at the time one or two “scholarships” out there. Different racing programs or different manufacturers that would help maybe one kid out of go karts to kind of transition. How it really worked out for me is I got a scholarship from Mazda, the car manufacturer, to kind of take that first step into formula cars. And I was able to have success and win some races and eventually win the championship.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:07:33] That championship win opened up Michael’s next opportunity, working at a driving school in Chandler, Arizona. One of the men he taught was a man by the name of Rob Finley.
Michael McDowell:
[00:07:45] He is a student. He was a 35 year old guy that was a successful business guy from Charlotte. Didn’t know him until he came out to the school and struck up a relationship and told me he’d be a race car driver. And literally the next week, I was moving out to Charlotte to help him start a race team and help him make that transition into racing.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:08:05] But Michael wasn’t the only one moving to Charlotte. So was his girlfriend, Jamie.
Michael McDowell:
[00:08:11] When I got the opportunity to move to Charlotte after meeting Rob, I remember just saying to her, hey, I’m going to move to Charlotte. I’m going to do this deal. Being an 18 year old working at a driving school, meet the right person at the right time that had the means to do it is just unheard of. She was like, well, what about me? I was like I don’t know. She was like, well, can I come. I was like, yeah, sure. That’s a great idea.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:08:40] Michael and Jamie had met in middle school and started dating as soon as Michael had his driver’s license. While Michael saw a future with her, at the time, he was focused entirely on chasing his career.
Michael McDowell:
[00:08:53] I loved her. And I knew she was the one for me. And I knew we would eventually get married. I knew that, but I was willing just to leave because this was my opportunity. You know, it was the next thing.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:09:03] That next thing was the arrangement he made with Rob Finley in Charlotte.
Michael McDowell:
[00:09:08] Rob took a chance on me, a young, cocky, arrogant kid at a driving school. I was able to put together a program in sports cars. And sports cars racing is different than NASCAR. There’s two drivers or sometimes three drivers. And so, it was a great opportunity because I could coach and teach him. He could race, and I could race at the same time in the same car and kind of develop as drivers.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:09:34] But in October 2004, a racing family that Michael had grown close to faced a sudden tragedy. A man named Ron Huber, the grandfather of one of Michael’s former students, had passed away. Michael traveled back to Arizona for his funeral. While he was there, he ran into some of the other men he had coached including Tom Barnett.
Michael McDowell:
[00:09:56] Tom asked me if I thought that Ron was in heaven. And I didn’t have a good understanding of that. And in my mind, if you were a good person, you went to heaven. And if you weren’t, you weren’t. And that’s about as much as I understood it. And so, I didn’t know really how to answer him other than, yeah, of course. I mean, he’s a great person. And Tom said what about you. Where are you at?
Jim Kirkland:
[00:10:22] Michael didn’t know how to answer him. He wasn’t even really sure what Tom was asking.
Michael McDowell:
[00:10:27] You know, he said what if I told you it has nothing to do with you being a good person. And that just left me twisted up like a pretzel.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:10:35] Over the next few weeks, God used that question of where are you at to challenge every aspect of Michael’s life.
Michael McDowell:
[00:10:44] For the first time in my life I had conviction. I also felt challenged of – and these are the things that I was thinking about when I was 18 is how I wanted to be as a man, how I wanted to be as a father, as a husband. I wasn’t married; I didn’t have any kids. I started thinking about all these things of like how did I want to live my life. I thought I was losing my mind.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:11:07] But Michael wasn’t losing his mind. What he was doing was finding God.
Michael McDowell:
[00:11:13] I’m like what is going on. And … and it was just God pursuing me. And through that pursuit, there was some challenges. And there was some conviction. And it just stayed in my mind of like what about you. Where are you at? And so, keep in mind I didn’t understand the gospel. Right. I didn’t know what it meant.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:11:35] But he would just about a month later. While he and Jamie were transitioning to life in Charlotte, they traveled back to see family in Phoenix.
Michael McDowell:
[00:11:43] We spent some time with her aunt and uncle. And her aunt and uncle invited us to their home church. So, I went into it like, ugh, whatever. We’ll just do this and hang out with them. It’ll be fine. And didn’t really know what to expect or what to think of it. \
Jim Kirkland:
[00:11:59] It was a large church in North Phoenix. And Michael felt awkward and uncomfortable.
Michael McDowell:
[00:12:05] As the pastor started speaking, it just felt like all of a sudden I was the only person in that church. And like the words that he was saying were like penetrating me completely, you know, like heart, soul, mind.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:12:19] Michael clearly heard the gospel and that God’s grace is a free gift that cannot be earned.
Michael McDowell:
[00:12:27] I’m coming from a world and a place where I had to earn everything. I was scrappy and a grinder. And that just didn’t make sense to me. It didn’t feel right. In racing, if you want to go faster, you work harder. You spend more money. You do these things. And that’s how you go faster. But he was saying that it’s a free gift. That you can’t earn it. You can’t pay for it; you can’t buy it. That it’s a gift that we accept. And if we do, we can have a fresh start and a clean slate.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:12:59] A clean slate. Michael still didn’t understand everything the pastor was saying, but he knew he wanted that. A clean slate.
Michael McDowell:
[00:13:10] I don’t even know what that looks like. But I just knew in my heart that that’s what I wanted. And I always classify that moment as like an aha moment, but it didn’t change every area of my life. You know, I left there with this weird emotional feel. I left there with this I want this fresh start. I want to know what this is, and I want to understand it. And I can’t tell you what’s happening, but I feel something. Something’s happening.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:13:38] That something was happening in Michael’s heart and mind. In much the same way he had approached racing, Michael became a student of Christianity. He wanted to learn what it meant to be a follower of Christ.
Michael McDowell:
[00:13:51] There was a few people that were at Ron’s funeral, Tom Barnett being one of them, that I leaned into. And I asked a lot of questions. What about this? What about that? And what about this? Um, you know, he got me a Bible. And he got me a couple of resources.
Jim Kirkland: [00:14:05] After Michael and Jamie returned to Charlotte, God continued to pursue the couple. For example, one day, Jamie was working out at a gym and forgot her water. A new church just so happened to be there handing out free water bottles. Jamie took the free water. And she and Michael decided to give the church a try.
Michael McDowell:
[00:14:26] We went there the first weekend. There was like eight people there. And we sat at a round table and got to know everybody. And so, God started putting all these people in our lives that we could ask questions. We could grow, and we could learn. And I feel like I went through that stage for about a year of just digging in.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:14:46] Michael wanted to understand what it really meant to be a follower of Christ.
Michael McDowell:
[00:14:51] I got to a place where I’m like, okay, this is so real. Like not just because I can wrap my head around it from a knowledge standpoint but because all these things I’ve experienced and felt and seen. You know, it just got to a place where I felt like I had to make a decision of whether I was going to surrender or keep questioning. And I just got to a place where I was just like, all right, Lord, whatever you want me to do. I don’t know what it looks like, but I want to do it.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:15:23] Michael did what God wanted him to do. And so did Jamie. They committed their lives to Jesus Christ. Then, they got baptized. But they continued to live together for two or three months before they got married. It’s a decision they now regret even though they are still happily married.
Michael McDowell:
[00:15:41] Looking back now, I think it could have been the greatest two or three months of our lives. I think it would have helped us go into our marriage with a clean slate. And I think God was giving us that window and opportunity to come in with a clean slate and have restoration. And we chose not to. And so, God never takes away our ability to choose. He never takes our ability to say no, and He never takes our ability away to say yes. But there are consequences to every action that we have.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:16:08] There was also another area of Michael’s life that he hadn’t yet fully surrendered to God.
Michael McDowell:
[00:16:15] And I felt like I had given my life to Christ as much as you can not understanding what you don’t know. Right. But racing was always something that I felt like I needed to keep a little bit separate. I wasn’t doing it intentionally. I think I was doing it somewhat subconsciously and maybe a little bit pridefully and not understanding it. It’s like, hey, I’ve done really well with this. I got this. You can help me in all these other areas of being a better person, being kinder, and being a good husband, and all that. But like I got this. And I signed my first cup contract which was a pretty great deal.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:16:51] At the time, Michael was in his early twenties. He had transitioned from racing go karts to sportscars and now to stock car racing. A monumental step in setting up his NASCAR career.
Michael McDowell:
[00:17:05] I was young. Twenty-one at the time. Signed a three year deal and felt like I was in a good spot. Felt good about our faith and our life. And we were married. It’s time to buy a house and maybe start having kids. And I had a motor home that traveled to all the races. And so, I wasn’t being irresponsible because I had a very lucrative three year deal. And I was in a good spot.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:17:32] Even so, the transition was not easy for Michael. NASCAR racing was very different from his previous experiences.
Michael McDowell:
[00:17:40] It was like speaking a whole different language. I mean, it was like going to a different country even though I wasn’t. I mean, it’s just a different world. The way that the cars are built, the technology, the resources, the people … it’s a very southern sport. It’s a good old boys sport. It was, in particular, when I came into it, and I was not that. I was the, uh, sports car, European racer from America. And so, it was a hard transition as far as, you know, just fitting in and being able to understand the sport and understand the style of racing, and the cars, and the technology. And so, it was a big transition for me. I even like would relate it to going from playing basketball to playing baseball.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:18:22] It was a very humbling experience for Michael.
Michael McDowell:
[00:18:26] Throughout my entire career, I had always won. And always been one of the best or the guy that you had to beat or at least one of the guys that you had to beat. I’d won hundreds of races until I got into NASCAR.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:18:41] Still, Michael managed to keep up with the other rookies. But his business deal went sideways. Eight months into his three year contract, Michael lost his job. Jamie was eight months pregnant, and they had a new house, a motor home, and all the bills that come with that.
Michael McDowell:
[00:18:59] Life got very real very quickly. That was kind of the first test of, one, that feeling comfort from the world’s standards of money, or contract, or having those sort of guarantees or securities. They’re not really secure at all.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:19:20] Michael realized he had to trust God completely with everything, including his racing career. And with that came some pretty tough questions.
Michael McDowell:
[00:19:30] There was moments like that of like, okay, what is next. You know, do I need to get a real job? Do I need to go back and pursue education? Because you’ve got to remember, I’m a high school dropout. No job experience except for racing. That’s all I’ve ever done. I don’t know anything else.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:19:49] What he did was keep pursuing what he knew. And God eventually provided his next opportunity.
Michael McDowell:
[00:19:55] I was still making phone calls. And I was still talking to team owners and trying to find sponsorship and trying to line up deals. I was still pursuing it with everything I had. And so, you know, I was working on a lot of different things. An opportunity came up where I could actually take a step backwards. I went back to the Xfinity Series. I took a step down.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:20:16] Michael got a partial deal for a half session with the Xfinity Series. Even though it wasn’t a full season, he was grateful for the opportunity to keep racing and keep following God. But not long thereafter, in 2008, Michael was in a big crash. It was at Texas Motor Speedway.
Michael McDowell:
[00:20:35] It was in qualifying. And qualifying is, you know, you against the clock. It’s two laps to go as fast as you possibly can. You really put everything on the line and on the edge. And that’s part of the reason why you see crashes in qualifying because you’re just maximizing everything. But in the moment, I remember getting loose and starting to turn down the hill. And I went to the brake pedal. They had the brakes pulled back for more speed. So, there was no brake pedal. And it turned hard right. And I went straight into the wall at probably 180 to 185 miles an hour with not a whole lot of slowing down before I hit it. And I remember when it turned to the right thinking, oh, this is going to hurt.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:21:19] And he wasn’t wrong. Michael says it felt like forever as the car barreled.
Michael McDowell:
[00:21:25] I had that slow motion feel where it was just rolling and rolling. Everything was super quiet except for the crunches. So, I didn’t hear a lot of outside noise, but just like bang, bang.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:21:39] When the car finally stopped rolling, it landed right side up. Then, it burst into flames.
Michael McDowell:
[00:21:45] I remember wiggling my toes and wiggling my hands just to like are they still there. Do they still work? And then immediately grabbing the window net and trying to get out because there was a decent amount of fire in there. The fire ended up going out.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:22:03] Thanks to God’s protection and modern race car engineering, Michael was able to walk away from the accident with only a few minor injuries, including sprained ankles and a few broken bones in his foot.
Michael McDowell:
[00:22:14] I raced 500 miles the next day which was really challenging because I was beat up and sore. There were a lot of things that weren’t functioning as well as they should have been.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:22:23] Even after the race, Michael couldn’t catch a break to recover. He was asked to fly to New York and then to Los Angeles for a media tour about his crash. The accident had become an opportunity for him to network and to build his brand. And maybe something else as well.
Michael McDowell:
[00:22:41] I just remember sitting on the plan and being challenged with like, man, I have this opportunity in front of me. And I can go two ways. I can talk about God’s goodness and I was able to walk away and make Him known, or I can make myself known. And the outside noise was make yourself known. Right. Because build your brand, this is an opportunity. No media is bad media. No coverage is bad coverage. That kind of thing.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:23:09] Michael had a two hour flight to make his decision.
Michael McDowell:
[00:23:12] It was a pivotal point for me in my faith journey of I’m going to take this opportunity to talk about the goodness and faithfulness of God and making Him known and not building my own brand.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:23:24] But honoring God didn’t mean Michael would suddenly start winning or having an easier road ahead. In fact, Michael’s deal soon came to an end, and he was out searching for the next one to keep racing.
Michael McDowell:
[00:23:36] From 2009 to 2012 or ’13, it was really tough. It was tough to stay in the sport. The rides that I was driving … I always tell people I needed a tetanus shot for the cars that I was getting in. I mean, it was just a tough go, but those were the most important years of my life.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:23:54] The reason those years of his life were so important, says Michael, is because that’s when he learned that his value is not based on other people’s perception of his performance.
Michael McDowell:
[00:24:06] We are in a performance driven sport. Every weekend, you are judged and scaled on how you finish. And every weekend, there’s a scoresheet that says you either won or you lost. And I could easily wrap my identity in what that scorecard says or what it doesn’t say. And that was really removed from me because I wasn’t in equipment or with teams that you even had to think about it.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:24:31] In fact, Michael often knew he was going to finish last in races, but he kept going. And he kept trusting in God.
Michael McDowell:
[00:24:39] I had to accept that this is the opportunity that God provided. And there was times that I didn’t want to do it. There was times that it wasn’t fun. But during those times, I was learning, and growing, and just like being discipled, and disciplining, and just having aha God moments even though they weren’t on the race track. And so, it was like, okay, I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m right where God wants me to be even though I don’t love it. I learned how to set goals. Appreciate the moments without the moments being mountaintops.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:25:13] From 2008 to 2016, Michael bounced around from one opportunity to another driving for six or seven different teams. He experienced a lot of frustrations and disappointments, but he knew that was to be expected.
Michael McDowell:
[00:25:28] There are a lot of miserable people in our sport because there’s one winner and there’s 38 losers every week. In football, there’s one winner and one loser. Right. I mean, you go head to head. In basketball, there’s one winner and there’s one loser. And you’ll spend your entire career and if you’re 50/50, it’s pretty good. Right. Hall of Famers in our sport are guys that have won 30 races. And they’ve done 700. You’d better get used to losing. Because you are going to do it 95% of your career is going to be losing in NASCAR.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:26:00] As extreme as those odds are, they didn’t keep Michael from hoping or even believing that one day he would be standing in the Victory Lane.
Michael McDowell:
[00:26:09] I never stopped chasing the dream or chasing the idea that I could win. And that it was going to get better.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:26:17] There’s a spiritual lesson in that for Michael. He didn’t just say he wanted to win. He gave his all to trying to make it happen. He knew there was a cost to being a successful NASCAR driver. And he says the same applies to being a follower of Jesus Christ.
Michael McDowell:
[00:26:33] I tell people, especially new believers, and in particular anybody I feel like God’s allowed me to help lead to the Lord … I always say what if it cost you everything? What if it requires everything? Like for me, it was the idea of this free gift, but it was a free gift. But it wasn’t free, right, it’s free to us in the sense that there’s nothing that we could do to earn it. But there is a hefty price that was paid for it. And when we step into that, there is a cost. And the cost is that God doesn’t just want one little area of your life. He wants all of it. It affects everything I do because that is who I am. Right. I’m follower of Christ. I’m not a NASCAR driver. I’m a follower of Christ who races in NASCAR.
Music tag:
[00:27:18]
Jim Kirkland:
[00:27:30] NASCAR driver Michael McDowell has discovered the peace and purpose that comes from living a life totally committed to Jesus Christ. If you’d like to know the same peace and purpose, we can help you. Visit us at FindPeacewithGod.net. It spells out clearly how you can become a follower of Jesus. And there’s also a chat option. That’s at FindPeacewithGod.net. If you’d rather talk with someone and have them pray with you, call us at the Billy Graham 24/7 prayer line. The number is (855) 255-PRAY. That’s (855) 255-PRAY. If you have wondered what’s the relationship between your work and God’s will when it comes to accomplishing goals in your life, Michael McDowell shares his insight on that in just a moment.
Audio tag:
[00:28:23]
Billy Graham:
[00:28:34] I find that millions are traveling on the highway of life. They have no goals, no purpose, no meaning in their life.
Announcer:
[00:28:42] Billy Graham …
Billy Graham:
[00:28:43] I’m thinking now of another highway mentioned by Isaiah the Hebrew prophet. He said and a highway shall be there in a way. And it shall be called the Way of Holiness. This is what Christ said. He said I’m the Way. Stick with me. Follow me. The Bible is our roadmap. Christ is our guide. And when people ask me for an autograph sometimes I sign a little verse of Scripture, Psalms 16:11. Thou would show me the path of life. And many of us, especially young people, today are searching for a way of life. I say come to Christ. He’ll lead you in that way of life.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:29:19] You can discover much more about that way of life by going to FindPeacewithGod.net. That’s FindPeacewithGod.net. Our guest on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories. is NASCAR driver Michael McDowell. He won the Daytona 500 in 2021, the Indianapolis 500 in 2023, and he’s been consistently running in the top 10 ever since. But he had to remain faithful for a long time. Seventeen years, in fact, before that first big win in 2021.
Michael McDowell:
[00:29:54] God used those 17 years to prepare me and the timing is now. And I’m getting to see the results. I feel like preparation is our role and our job and what we do in how we prepare and do our job. And timing is the Lord’s. And sometimes it doesn’t line up. Sometimes all your hard work and everything that you’re doing to be successful is just not happening. And then, all of a sudden, it happens. And that preparation work is our role in it. And timing is the Lord’s.
Jim Kirkland:
[00:30:27] We’re thankful for Michael McDowell joining us on this episode. He and Jamie have five kids ages 16 to 2. And they all travel with him to races and chase his dream of racing together. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, hit the subscribe button. That way you will never miss an episode. The next one will come your way in just two weeks. I’m Jim Kirkland. And this is GPS: God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Always good news.
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