Michael McDowell has his sights set on a return trip to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. He has three more opportunities, but none are more important than Sunday's "do or die" race at Watkins Glen International.
"It's do or die for sure, yeah," McDowell said Saturday morning. "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 time's winding down."
McDowell has a simple task ahead of him as he enters Sunday's race. As late Las Vegas Raiders owner Al Davis said, "Just win, baby."
The reason for this attitude is that the two-time Cup Series winner can not point his way into the playoffs. He enters the weekend sitting 23rd in points. He is 134 points behind Chris Buescher, the final driver in a playoff spot.
Being below the cutline is not a new experience for McDowell, who has grinded his way to more than 520 Cup Series starts with a variety of teams. He sat in this position back in 2023 while driving for Front Row Motorsports.
McDowell responded by going out and scoring a dominant road course win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This locked him into the playoffs for the second time in his career.
"The pressure always ramps up as the time's winding down, but I've been in the spot before, and, yeah, definitely feel confident that our road course program's been really good," McDowell added.
Having this past experience provides McDowell with some confidence; it doesn't mean that he will automatically go out and win at Watkins Glen International. After all, he faces off with a jam-packed lineup of racers, including such names as Shane van Gisbergen, Kyle Larson, Buescher, AJ Allmendinger, and Chase Elliott.
McDowell also saw other road course opportunities slip through his grasp earlier this season.
Chicago served as a prominent example. He started second and led the opening 31 laps with one of the two best cars in the field, but he finished 32nd due to a mechanical issue.
McDowell also showed up to Mexico City and Sonoma Raceway with belief in himself and his team. He ran well while posting top-five finishes in both races, but he did not have the overall speed to contend for the win.
The Spire Motorsports driver has a different feeling about Watkins Glen International, especially after last year's lineup of Spire drivers -- Corey LaJoie, Zane Smith, and Carson Hocevar -- all posted top-10 finishes at the road course.
"I'll say this, is that I showed up as Sonoma, thinking after Chicago, that we were gonna be the car to beat, and we weren't," McDowell said. "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."
What happens if McDowell capitalizes during this do or die weekend and scores the win? He puts himself into the playoffs and significantly shakes up the playoff picture.
If he misses out on the win, he leaves Watkins Glen with two more opportunities to score the season-changing win. However, he likely views the weekend as a significant letdown.