by Lee Spencer

Updated: March 28, 2008, 4:20 PM EST 8 comments

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From the time a driver graduates from big wheels to go-karts, he or she learns that going fast is the main goal. That's been the case for Michael McDowell. The 23-year-old Glendale, Ariz. native has impressed motorsports pundits in every series he's competed in — no matter whether it's been karting, the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series or the ARCA RE/MAX Series.

After painstakingly sitting on the sidelines since February, McDowell is now taking his turn at NASCAR behind the wheel of the No. 00 Michael Waltrip Racing Camry in the Sprint Cup Series.

"I've been itching pretty bad to get in and get going," McDowell said with his infectious grin.

It's been a waiting game for McDowell, who was introduced as one of MWR's development drivers last October. He's spent his down time constructively on simulation programs and on top of the spotters stand while Dale Jarrett finished the final chapter in his 24-year Cup career before vacating his ride — and setting the wheels in motion for McDowell's big chance. MWR teammate David Reutimann inherits the No. 44 UPS Camry, currently 34th in the point standings, beginning this weekend while McDowell acquires Reutimann's No. 00, and a more comfortable 26th-place in the owner standings.

"What's going to really help us is going to be in the top-35 and being able to run the practice and not have to do qualifying runs the whole time," McDowell said. "I think that was one of the setbacks for the team last year is that they spent all of practice trying to get into the race and then once you were in the race, the cars weren't good because you couldn't work on them.

"If we can just break through that barrier then we're going to have a lot better race results and it's going to make my job not easy, but maybe a little less challenging."

McDowell has witnessed the gains both Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota have made in the off-season and has been impressed by how far his teammates have come in 2008. Still, McDowell admits he's a bit "nervous."

But despite his youth, he's not naive nor does he underestimate the demands of the Sprint Cup Series. Watching the talent from the spotters perch has only reinforced McDowell's idea of the skills required to compete at this level.

"You can't underestimate how difficult it's going to be and you can act confident and say it's going to be easy and jump in and do it," McDowell said. "We all know there's been a lot of great drivers that haven't been able to do it.

"Toyota has worked really hard and Michael Waltrip Racing has worked really hard and I think we'll have a car that's capable to run up front and I will be as well."

This has not been one of the more stellar rookie classes to date. Jacques Villeneuve did not survive the season-opening Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway. Defending IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti and Regan Smith are currently 38th and 39th in the point standings, respectively, and will be forced to make at least this weekend's Goody's 500 on time — or go home. And 35th-place Sam Hornish, an Indianapolis 500 winner and champ like Franchitti, is on the bubble.

"I have high expectations," says McDowell, who scored the most wins (4), poles (9), led the most laps and finished second in the ARCA point standings last year during his rookie campaign. "The team has worked really hard so there's no reason why we can't be the top rookie, challenge for rookie of the year and finish in the top 20 or 25 by the end of the year.

"Even though I haven't won an Indy 500 or a Formula One World Championship, I do have a year of stock car racing under my belt. It might not sound like much, but the guys that have run ARCA or trucks or Nationwide might do seven races a year. I ran all 25 races. So I feel like I do have a little bit of experience going into it."

McDowell prescribes to a regular workout routine though he jokes that as a 6-foot-2 driver "It's always been a challenge" to maintain race weight — a necessary evil when wanting to keep the car as light as possible. But nothing compares to actual racing.

"You want to stay as small as you can, but the biggest thing is going all 500 miles and on the simulator as well — from the mental side of it," McDowell said. "The computer helps before you actually get to the racetrack ... it's a tool that I think really helps. It's something I did a lot last year because it was my first year in stock cars, first year doing ARCA as well and I didn't know any of the tracks. It really helped just to get familiar with the tracks, the speed and how the race procedure would go. I think the simulation is a good tool, but it is in no way equivalent to actually getting out there and doing it."

Despite the difference between the Grand-Am Series' Daytona Prototypes and stock cars, McDowell gained valuable experience. Endurance events like the Rolex 24 at Daytona are a whole other type of workout.

"The cars are so hot in the Rolex sports car series and there's not a lot of air coming," McDowell said. "The races are so long that you really get that training of how to stay relaxed, how to stay calm and how to control your breathing. You're not getting a lot of fresh air in there and I think that will help with the stock cars."

And then there's the patience.

McDowell will need all the patience he can muster this weekend at Martinsville Speedway — the half-mile paper clip-shaped track that has tested the mettle of racers with far more experience than NASCAR's newest freshman.

The first-year driver enters this weekend's race with another stock-car rookie — his crew chief Bill Pappas. The 46-year-old Indianapolis native and Purdue University graduate joined Waltrip's organization this season following a successful run in Indy cars. During his first open wheel stint in 1989 at Patrick Racing, Pappas' team won the Indy 500 with Emerson Fittipaldi. He went on to work as an engineer at Target Chip Ganassi Racing with Juan Pablo Montoya.

After finally getting acquainted to Jarrett for the first three months of 2008, Pappas now must duplicate the process with McDowell.

"From his background in sports cars — he was very competitive — and his experience in ARCA after never seeing an oval and sits on nine poles and wins four races, that's very impressive," Pappas said of McDowell. "I think he's definitely the real deal. I'll be real excited when this happens."

McDowell feels that the short-track experience he gained in ARCA will benefit him this weekend. With the off-season testing he's participated in and the two days the team spent shaking down his cars at Caraway (N.C.) Speedway earlier in the month, McDowell is ready to roll. Nevertheless, he can't help but respect a track like Martinsville Speedway — where he finished 30th in last year's Craftsman Truck race.

"I don't think there's any place that's easy to make your debut," McDowell said. "All the tracks are unique and they're all difficult. You can go to Texas and its 210 miles per hour going into Turn 1 and you go to Martinsville and it's only 130, but it's one of the most technically challenging tracks there is.

"They're all unique and difficult — it wasn't my choice to pick Martinsville, but it's the situation we have. I'm glad we're going to a short track because it is a little more forgiving — you can get beat and banged up and you can back it into the fence and still keep going, especially with these new cars. I feel like it gives us an opportunity to maybe make a few more mistakes than you normally could."