Michael McDowell has not competed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since the 2016 season, but that will change this weekend at Watkins Glen International.
The veteran NASCAR driver will join Kaulig Racing for Saturday's road course race. He will drive the No. 11 Chevrolet Camaro as the team continues evaluating its Xfinity Series program after parting ways with Josh Williams.
McDowell, who made his Xfinity debut in 2007, has made 94 starts in the second-tier NASCAR series. He competed full-time in 2009 and '10 while posting six top-10 finishes.
The Spire Motorsports driver then made 22 starts between 2011 and 2016 while primarily competing in the Cup Series. The majority of these starts took place with Joe Gibbs Racing as McDowell posted five top-five finishes. However, his best outing took place with Richard Childress Racing.
The Arizona native made his most recent Xfinity Series start in 2016. He joined Richard Childress Racing at Road America, and he drove the No. 2 Chevrolet. McDowell started second and led 24 of the 48 laps en route to his first career Xfinity Series win.
He will now return to the Xfinity Series at a track where he has performed well overall during the Gen 7 era. He posted both of his top-10 finishes at the road course since 2022. He also qualified third in 2023 and won the opening stage before an electrical issue ended his day early.
McDowell is the second Spire Motorsports driver to join Kaulig Racing this season. Carson Hocevar controlled the No. 11 last weekend at Iowa Speedway and piloted the entry to a sixth-place finish.
Kaulig Racing has not provided any other details about the drivers who will fill out the rest of the Xfinity Series schedule in the No. 11 Chevrolet. However, Speedcafe has reported that Supercars champion Will Brown has received an invite from Kaulig Racing to control the entry at Portland International Raceway on Aug. 30.
The Xfinity Series will compete on the West Coast while Truck Series and Cup Series drivers head to Darlington Raceway that same weekend.
While Kaulig Racing has not confirmed that Brown will take on the Oregon road course, Team President Chris Rice teased an intriguing driver announcement.
"When you look at the next four weeks there are some opportunities to go and judge and grade the Xfinity program," Rice said during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
"You know, we've got to get our Xfinity program back to where we're contending for wins and trophy hunting and doing different things like that.
"Sometimes, you know, we were going to take a fourth car to places just to figure that out. Now we can do it with the third car. So, looking at it over the next four weeks, I think it's a pretty good lineup and I think everybody's going to be surprised with the standalone race that's coming up in Portland."