This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Watkins Glen International for their fifth road race of the year. Coverage of the Go Bowling at the Glen Sunday starts with Countdown to Green at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. Race coverage will start at 3 p.m. ET with the green flag scheduled to fly around 3:20 p.m. ET
Records and facts
Last year's Go Bowling at the Glen was very quick. With no stage breaks, the whole race was completed in under two hours.
Michael McDowell led early, but the
dominant driver proved to be William Byron. Byron took the lead on lap 21 when McDowell made his first pit stop. From there, he led all but 10 laps en route to the victory.
Byron won by 2.632 seconds over pole sitter Denny Hamlin. Christopher Bell was third, then AJ Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs.
Among active drivers, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch each have two career wins at Watkins Glen. Busch won the 2008 and 2013 races on the road course and was
within a lap of adding a third in 2012. You probably remember what happened there. Elliott won in 2018 and 2019, while Larson won in 2021 and 2022. Six other previous winners will be in Sunday's race (Allmendinger, Byron, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Juan Pablo Montoya and Martin Truex Jr.).
Tony Stewart is the all-time winningest driver at Watkins Glen with five career victories. Jeff Gordon is second with four career wins (three in a row from 1997-1999).
Mark Martin won three consecutive races from the pole (1993-1995). Six other drivers (Busch, Elliott, Larson, Marcos Ambrose, Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace) have two wins each.
Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 2.45-mile road course, 90 laps (220.5 miles, 355.005 kilometers)
Banking: 6-10
degrees
Frontstretch: 2,150 ft.., flat
Backstretch: 2,600 ft., flat
Grandstand Seating: 38,900 (total capacity is closer to 95,000)
Pit Road
Speed: 40 mph
Pace Car Speed: 45 mph
Opened: 1956 (first Cup race in 1957)
Website: http://www.theglen.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WatkinsGlenInternational
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WGI
Pre-Race Schedule:
Practice: Saturday, Sept. 14, 11:30 a.m. - 12:50 p.m. ET on NBCSports.com/NBC Sports App, joined in progress at 12:30 p.m. ET on USA Network
Qualifying: Saturday, Sept. 14, 1 p.m. ET on USA Network
Say What?!
"Watkins Glen in the Cup car has been really good for us over the last couple of years. We’ve had top five speed, opportunities to win the race, and we’ve finished second and fourth there in the last two years. I’m really pumped about the opportunity to run the No. 13 Go Bowling Chevy at Watkins Glen. With that car, we don’t have to worry about points and can focus on using our strategy to win
the race. I think we can run up front all day and have a great opportunity to steal a win." - AJ Allmendinger
"It seems that way [flipping the stage] and can be a good thing for me, personally. And it’d be a good thing for passing. Watkins Glen is so fast, and we’ve gone there
the last few years with no tire fall off, so you can’t get close enough to a guy to make a pass. It’s simple as physics, right? You go up through the Esses and lose five-to-six car lengths, it’s over. So, it’s going to help us be able to make passes if our car is good and that’s what we need at those kinds of places with our Reser’s Fine Foods Camry this weekend." - Martin Truex
Jr.
"Watkins Glen is one of those races that is completely wide open. How we’re going to run that track is going to be a little bit different with how they’ve changed some of the curbing. It sounds like we’re not going to be able to run as far off the racetrack as we typically
do. And the tire is different, too. Last year, my left-rear got stuck, so I ran the entire race with the same left-rear tire and really didn’t have any issues until about 10 to go. But this year, it sounds like in 10 laps you’re going to lose four seconds just with the way the tire wears. There are a ton of variables that are totally new, so that’s why I think it’s going to be wide open." - Chase Briscoe
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is
courtesy of Nigel Kinrade
Photography.
