As a guy who tries to make it on the Nationwide Series with limited funds, Randy MacDonald is taking a big leap this offseason.

Big as in about 50 miles.

Trying to create a more upscale image for his team, MacDonald has moved it from his small shop in Thomasville all the way to a shop in Mooresville that originally housed the Rahmoc Cup team years ago and is located in a business park home to several race teams.

It’s all part of MacDonald’s latest strategy to try to land sponsorship dollars, an area that he has always found to be a struggle.

But, only the team moved. MacDoanld commutes from Thomasville to Mooresville every day. He still has his two area car lots – one on Greensboro Road in High Point and the other on Lexington Ave. in Thomasville. e’s keeping the old shop, possibly to rent with the intention of one day putting a late-model driver development team there.

And if the Nationwide team continues to grow, MacDonald dreams of building his own big expansive shop on some acreage on the other side of Business 85 down from his other shop near the N.C. 109 exit.

For now, his dream revolves around Mooresville.

“It elevates our whole program,” MacDonald said of the Mooresville location. “We’re down there in a 70,000 square foot shop. You walk in the front door, it’s all state of the art looking. There’s a conference room. The shop facilities are immaculate. It’s just the right size for us. We can bring people in here with a smile on our face and show them the vision of where we are going.”

This year, he’s trying to get there by hiring third-year NASCAR driver Michael McDowell, banking that the combination of a first-class shop and a guy with Cup experience and connections will help land sponsorship money at a time when landing money is as about as difficult as selling ice to the northern reaches of MacDonald’s native Canada.

Yes, that Michael McDowell – the 25-year-old from Arizona who spent his early racing days in sports cars and is still best known in NASCAR circles for escaping death when as a Cup rookie in 2008 he lost control of one of Michael Waltrip’s cars on a qualifying lap at Texas Motor Speedway, slammed into the first-turn wall and then escaped injury as the car tumbled several times to the bottom of the banking.

McDowell made 20 starts for Waltrip before he was taken out of the car late in the season. Last year, he drove for JTG-Daugherty Racing in the Nationwide Series for the first half of the season before the team cut back due to lack of sponsorship. He put together enough rides with three other teams to finish 13th in points with four finishes in the top five. The hodgepodge season for McDowell included three races for MacDonald with a best finish of 25th. He also drove for Tommy Baldwin in the Cup Series, mostly as a start-and-park driver.

“He had a really strong performance for us at St. Louis,” MacDonald explained. “He qualified in the top 15 and when the green flag came out went to eighth (before crashing and finishing 32nd). He’s 25, but he’s got tons of experience through his deal with Michael Waltrip Racing. He was a winning driver in ARCA (in 2007). He won four races and nine poles. He’s youth with experience. We thought this would be a good opportunity for us to leverage his popularity. He needs a home until he can get back into Cup. He needs to keep racing. It’s a good deal with both of us.”

It’s a good enough deal for McDowell, who considers himself lucky that his NASCAR career didn’t end when his deal with Waltrip did.

“With the MWR situation and me being a rookie and that being a new team, I could have very easily gone back to sports car racing and finished out my career doing that,” McDowell said. “Just grinding it out and taking whatever deals I can on the Nationwide side or Cup side, whether it’s start and park or racing. I made the most of the opportunities I had last year and that put me in position to get some opportunities this year. I’m going to stay hard at it. I’ve got something to prove in this sport and I’ve got time to do it. Hopefully, this will be another year to capitalize on the opportunity I have.”

His opportunities include driving a second entry for Prism Motorsports alongside returning driver Dave Blaney in the Cup Series. Because of lack of sponsorship last season, Blaney was a start-and-park driver who got into races just to get the prize money for starting. Prism owner Phil Parsons indicated that McDowell will start-and-park this year as an effort to bring in enough money so that Blaney can start going the distance.

“I drove for Randy last year and got to know him as a person and a friend,” McDowell said. “He and I clicked well together. He’s been able to survive these years with limited funding and race and not start and park.

“I have a full-time Cup ride. I wasn’t in a dire need to find something, but I felt like I could help him build something and be a part of his team and help him take to the next level, and create security and longevity and stay in sport a long time by being a part of the process.”

The deal includes MacDonald hiring crew chief Patrick Donohue, who guided McDowell in his ARCA days, and buying some new cars and equipment. He will continue to field Dodges and will be one of five Dodge teams in the Nationwide Series, the most notable two entries from Penske Racing. MacDonald said he hasn’t talked to Dodge about support.

“The gamble that Michael and I are taking is that we will be able to elevate our presence and performance to tie into some good sponsorship,” MacDonald said. “Some teams are going to have to downsize. They’re going to have to race the way we race, so that’s going to make us more competitive. We’re going to be able to move forward and they’re going to have to roll it back a little bit. So that should give us an opportunity to get some sponsorship.”

With an upgrade in location and equipment, MacDonald is hoping for some top-10 finishes and a top-10 finish in points for McDowell and a top-15 finish in owners points. The catch is that he has no sponsorship to begin the season.

“We’re going to put everything together and go, just like we always have.” MacDonald said. “We’re going to give it our best effort. After all these years, we continue to stay in the sport and get better. This is a big step. Hope it will give us momentum for years to come to progress to a championship-level team.”

McDowell is helping in the search for sponsors

“The biggest thing for me is he and I share the same vision,” McDowell said. “We know that we’re going to have to find sponsors. But he’s been able to make it work every year. He’s dedicated to the end result and I am as well.”

gsmith@hpe.com | 888-3519