Michael McDowell, driving the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Camaro ZL1 in the NASCAR Cup Series and the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Camaro SS in the Xfinity Series, is gearing up for a challenging weekend running both events at Watkins Glen International. This double-duty effort brings an opportunity for McDowell to showcase his skill on one of NASCAR’s most demanding road courses.
McDowell’s participation in both series highlights his determination to secure a win after setbacks, emphasizing his eagerness to gain additional track time and refine his performance in diverse machinery.
McDowell’s Perspective on Returning to the Xfinity Car
Taking on the Xfinity car this weekend marks McDowell’s return to that series after several years. He expressed excitement and a touch of nervousness about driving a vehicle distinct from the Next Gen Cup cars, relying on prep and simulator work to adapt.
“Yeah, it’s been a long time, so it’s been exciting. Yeah, it’s been fun. I haven’t driven the car yet, but just, you know, the prep work and some of the simulator work and yeah, it’s nerve racking too, just because the cars are very different than the Next Gen Cup cars. But, you know, thankful for the opportunity and I’m glad to get some, you know, more reps and, you know, last time I ran, Xfinity car was Road America 2016 and felt like, man, I’m not going to get it in one of these things again unless I could win, and I feel like this is a car that I can win in. So, I’m excited to give it a shot.”
—Michael McDowell, NASCAR Driver
The Urgency and Importance of the Watkins Glen Cup Race
McDowell is approaching this weekend as a critical juncture in his season. While acknowledging further chances remain at Richmond and Daytona, he stresses the necessity of a victory at Watkins Glen to take control of his playoff fate. Success at this track provides the clearest path forward, given the challenges of winning at remaining venues.
“It’s do or die for sure, yeah. I mean, yes, we have more opportunities. I mean, we’re not we can go to Richmond and run well too, and obviously, Daytona, I feel like we have a shot at it. But to me, this is the only way you control your own destiny is to win here. The other two are very tough to execute and have everything go your way, so times winding down, as you guys know, right? And, the pressure always ramps up as the times winding down, but I’ve been in the spot before, and, yeah, definitely feel confident that our road course programs, you know, been really good. And if we do our job and we have a fast car and we qualify well today, and we can start up front, we we’ll have a shot at it.”
—Michael McDowell, NASCAR Driver
Reflecting on the Career-Defining 2016 Victory at Road America
The 2016 win at Road America with Richard Childress Racing remains a highlight in McDowell’s career. He recalls the long journey filled with near-misses while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, before finally achieving success with RCR under perfect conditions.
He recounted the day’s experience, including humorous moments such as teammate Sam Hornish practicing qualifying his Cup car, which led to a humbling Sunday race return. Despite setbacks following that victory, the support from peers and team members during the celebratory drivers meeting stands out as a meaningful memory.
“Yeah, it was it was a great moment. There’s a lot of funny stories. You know, I’d driven the Gibbs car a couple years prior to that at those places and sat on the pole and led the most laps and had shots at winning and just never got to the finish line. You know, green/white/checkers or fuel miles or whatever it is. and with the RCR group, I had one race, you know, sort of one race, one shot, and it all worked out. Just a good execution all day and no problems, and kind of like how you dreamed it up to be, where, you know, the last several before that that Gibbs cars, like, I probably had more speed and more of a dominant day, but it just didn’t work out, so to have it all finally come together was a big relief, honestly, just because it had been, you know, such a long time and so close.”
“And then humble pie came super quick in the race on Sunday and, yeah, it’s just funny how this sport works.”
—Michael McDowell, NASCAR Driver
Assessing Confidence and Momentum Heading into Watkins Glen
McDowell separates confidence from momentum, emphasizing the latter as a stronger influence on his performance. His recent road course finishes have sustained momentum, fostering belief in his capability to win, particularly on a track where he has demonstrated speed despite encountering mechanical trouble in past years.
Although previous experiences at Sonoma showed the unpredictable nature of Cup racing, McDowell arrives at Watkins Glen with optimism, pointing to his team’s solid road course package and his familiarity with the track as reasons for high confidence.
“Yeah, confidence is, you know, is interesting. We talk about a lot of our sport, and it’s a real thing. But I think momentum’s more of a real thing than confidence, and they correlate, they go together. I mean, I think I show up every weekend feeling like I can win. And, you know, obviously, the real courses are a little bit more pep in our step just because they’ve been our strength, and that’s more of the momentum, you know, when you run top five, most of them, you know that you have a fighting chance at it.”
“And, yeah, but with confidence, I’ll say this, is that, you know, I showed up as Sonoma, thinking after Chicago, that we were gonna be the car to beat, and we weren’t. And that’s how finicky Cup racing is. We still ran well. We still ran in the top five, but we didn’t have the outright pace that we needed to do what we needed to do at Sonoma. But we come in here confident that we got it all right, and that we will. And so I feel like we this is probably our strongest track as a group last year, you know, all three Spire cars were in the top ten, and, you know, individually, even though the results won’t show it, this is probably my best track from an outright speed standpoint. You know, we’ve had an engine failure and a bunch of issues over the last three years, but let a lot of laps and been out front a lot here, so confidence is high. But you got to execute, and you know, you got to hit everything just right.”
—Michael McDowell, NASCAR Driver
Evolution of Road Course Strategy Compared to Previous Years
McDowell notes a clear shift in the team’s approach to road course racing, describing a move away from former methods that failed to yield consistent results. Instead, they adopted a patient, step-by-step development strategy that has gradually improved performance across different events, such as COTA, Mexico City, Chicago, and Sonoma.
This ongoing refinement aims to build a competitive baseline package tailored to current standards, differentiating from approaches used over the past two seasons.
“Yeah, it’s not even close. Um, I sort of we sort of had to abandon that ship fairly early on of what we used to run versus what we run now. It just hasn’t worked. I think we’ve talked about that a few times, so we went to the mindset of this is gonna be a slower building process, than we had hoped, but it’s actually worked out because we, you know, we went to COTA and learned things there, and then, you know, I kind of transferred over into Mexico and felt like we made a next step, and then went to Chicago and made a next step, and then went to Sonoma and took a step back, and hopefully we’ve made that next step back forward. And so just slowly building that package around me and around the baseline that they’ve had, which is very different than what I’ve ran the last two years.”
—Michael McDowell, NASCAR Driver
Key Elements to Watch During Watkins Glen Practice and Qualifying
Understanding the nuances of Watkins Glen’s layout, McDowell highlights the differing objectives for qualifying versus race performance. While lap times during qualifying are primarily generated through speed in sections like the esses and the bus stop, overtaking opportunities occur mainly at turns one and six.
His focus during practice is to balance optimizing lap time with ensuring the car performs well in passing zones, acknowledging the track requires precise cornering with minimal margin for error.
“Yeah, it’s different here for the race than it is for qualifying, what you’re looking for, I should say, because we’re a lap time and speeds made is not necessarily where passing’s made. So, it’s a little bit of two different things. I mean, you got to be good in all the corners, you don’t have any room for throwaways, but, you know, your lap time and your speed’s going to come from the esses. The esses and the bus stop. But you don’t pass so much there, you pass into turn one and you pass into turn six.”
“And so, for this practice here, you’re focusing on both of, what do I need to make, you know, ultimate lap time and am I good in these areas leading up to the passing zones? So, it is unique from that standpoint where some of the other tracks are more straightforward of where you need to be strong. This, I think, is different for lap time than it is for race.”
—Michael McDowell, NASCAR Driver
The Challenge of Following a Successful Leader on Road Courses
McDowell reflects on Shane van Gisbergen’s unprecedented string of road course victories, explaining why replicating such dominance remains difficult despite access to extensive data and technology. He compares it to fitness, where observing someone else’s workouts does not directly translate into personal fitness, emphasizing the importance of muscle memory, driving style, and unique setup preferences.
Even teammates with identical cars and shared information often differ in results, illustrating the challenge of duplicating success.
“Yeah, I mean, I would relate to this just because, um, you know, social media or Instagram, you see somebody working out on lifting weights, doesn’t mean that you know how to get fit. It’s kind of the same thing with data, is you can look at it all you want, and you can say, I need to do this, but actually doing it is different. You know, your muscle memory and having the car set up in the feel and, you know, all the uniqueness to a driving style.”
“So you can see the data, but duplicating it and duplicating the feel and you’re not driving their car as well. You don’t know what their setups are, you don’t know, you know, what they’re doing, that allows, you know, a person to approach it like that. So, it gives you, it gives you an area to work on. It gives you an area to identify, okay, this is where I’m getting beat. How can I get better?”
“But just trying to do what somebody else does is really hard. And you see that even with teammates. You know, you see inside of organizations, you know, guys that have the same cars and have all the information, can’t do the same things, and I think it’s more of driving style and each of us is fairly unique. but it does help to highlight where you got to get better.”
—Michael McDowell, NASCAR Driver
McDowell’s Views on Young Talent and Development at Spire Motorsports
Discussing Spire Motorsports’ recent success with 15-year-old Tristan McKee, McDowell draws a contrast between his own teenage years and the emerging star’s achievements. While praising McKee’s composure and execution under pressure, McDowell recognizes the importance of gradual development through the racing ranks to avoid rushing which can disrupt a driver’s growth.
He acknowledges the investment and long-term plan Spire has for nurturing young talent, including preparing for the eventual transition when a successor replaces him in the NASCAR spotlight.
“Yeah, not winning at Watkins Glen. Yeah, it’s really awesome to see and, you know, obviously, we’ve invested a lot into seeing the potential and where it could go, and at a young age, it’s so hard. It’s hard because. I would say if you just look at, like Joey Logano, you look at Kyle Larson, you look at all the young guys at that 14, 15, 16 age, they were dominant in everything that they did, but as you take that next step and next step and next step, it just gets harder and harder and harder and, you know, obviously, he rose to the occasion yesterday, and, you had things go his way, for sure.”
“So it was really cool to see. You know, it was it was a fun moment, too, you know, for me, because, you know, obviously I’m vested here at Spire and plan on being here a long time, and we’ll have a part in picking my replacement, which it looks like my replacement’s been picked, and the faster he gets through all these series, the faster I’m gonna be out of the seat. So it was a little bit of those moments of like, I still like driving. If this guy keeps doing this, this is gonna be really short for me.”
“But, no, I mean, I feel like it’s great. And to have, you know, depth of young talent is super important, and, you know, I think the sky’s the limit, and it’s just gonna be about putting him in the right situations, and then also, too, you know, you got to be careful not to rush it, and, um, it’s easy for us to all do that, because of yesterday, right? I mean, we’ve seen it in our sport before, it’s like, ah, and then you just keep rushing it, rushing and rushing it, and sometimes that makes it a little bit too much, because you don’t get all the fundamentals that you need to progress to the next level.”
“So, the good news is, is there’s a plan in place, and he has a lot of time available to him, right? And so it’s really not a rush because of how far ahead he is. And so, yeah, it was very cool to watch.”
—Michael McDowell, NASCAR Driver
Looking Ahead to Watkins Glen and McDowell’s Potential Impact
As McDowell approaches this critical weekend with Spire Motorsports and Kaulig Racing, the combination of his recent momentum, experience, and thoughtful preparation positions him as a serious contender at Watkins Glen. His ability to manage dual series entries while focusing on execution underlines the intensity and complexity of his championship pursuit.
This weekend’s performance could profoundly influence the trajectories of both his playoff hopes and his legacy as a versatile driver capable of adapting across NASCAR’s top racing platforms.
