Kyle Larson celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International on August 21, 2022. Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images
NASCAR Cup Series racing on road courses consistently features some of the most skilled, high stakes competition of the season. This week’s race at Watkins Glen International includes all that, plus the extra pressure of impacting the 2023 Playoff picture with only two races remaining to formally set the 16-driver field.
Finding a compelling storyline to follow this weekend will not be a problem.
Current championship leader Martin Truex, Jr. arrives in upstate New York with a 60-point lead on his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin in second place. If he can pick up a point and hold a 61-point edge over the field by Sunday’s checkered flag, the regular season championship – and the all-important 15-point bonus – will be his.
Truex would match Kyle Busch (2018 and 2019) as the only two drivers to win multiple regular season titles. Truex is one of eight former Watkins Glen winners in the field, claiming the 2017 trophy en route to his season championship.
While the top of the standings could well be wrapped up this weekend, it’s a vastly different story at the 16th-place Playoff cutline. Michael McDowell claimed another automatic bid with his popular victory last weekend on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
With the trophy, McDowell becomes the 13th driver to secure a Playoff position with a win, joining Truex, Hamlin, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
And this is where things get super interesting. Kevin Harvick, who is retiring at the end of this season, is tops among the points standings after the race winners with a 145-point advantage on 16th place. Just below him in points is Brad Keselowski, 143 points to the good. A new winner, however, could certainly complicate their situations.
With two races to go, that 16th place position is most vulnerable. Bubba Wallace holds a 28-point advantage over Daniel Suarez. Wallace, who is competing to earn his first Playoff appearance, will need to step up his game at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International. His average finish in four starts is 27.8 and his best finish is 23rd in 2021. Wallace has never won on a NASCAR Cup Series road course.
Suarez won on the Sonoma Raceway road course last year. He has three top-five finishes in five starts at Watkins Glen and his average finish there is 12.0.
“We just need to keep doing what we are doing,” Suarez said. “That’s qualify well and earn stage points and get a good finish. There is still a lot of racing left and we know we can do this. If we have as good a car at Watkins Glen as we had at Indianapolis, we know we can win there. That’s true about Daytona as well.”
Just behind them in the standings is rookie Ty Gibbs – 49 points behind Wallace. A win at Watkins Glen this week or Daytona International Speedway in next week’s regular season finale would make Gibbs only the sixth rookie to land a Playoff position.
Gibbs earned four road course wins in his Xfinity Series career – including a 2021 trophy at Watkins Glen. Gibbs, Busch, Chastain and Alex Bowman will get a head-start on competition this weekend, competing in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
One of the biggest stories heading to The Glen involves the two-time race winner there, Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott. The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion has valiantly worked his way up the standings after missing six total races – five with injury and a one-race NASCAR suspension for crashing Denny Hamlin. But 80-points behind Wallace, Elliott will most likely need a victory to ensure his eighth consecutive Playoff bid at this point.
The good news for Elliott is that he is not only good at Watkins Glen, but boasts the top average finish (5.667) in the field. Elliott earned his first career series victory on the road course in 2018 and he backed it up the next year – one of only three active drivers (Larson and Busch) to have multiple wins at Watkins Glen.
In six starts at the road course, Elliott has won two races, two pole positions and scored four top fives on the 2.54-mile course. His Hendrick teammate Larson is the two-time defending race winner, and a victory Sunday would make him only the third driver in history to win three straight at Watkins Glen – joining NASCAR Hall of Famers Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon.
NXS: NASCAR Xfinity Series Is Still Painting The Playoff Picture With Four Races To Go
The NASCAR Xfinity Series is closing in on its own Playoff scenario with Saturday’s race at Watkins Glen and the regular season championship is anything but decided with four races remaining.
Current leader, Austin Hill of Winston, Georgia, takes an 11-point advantage over John Hunter Nemechek into Watkins Glen. One or the other has led the championship every week of the season – and they have dueled it out directly, exchanging the lead for the last 15 weeks.
Hill finished 30th in his only previous start at Watkins Glen but has improved his road course record this season with top-10 finishes in five of the first six road course races of 2023 – including a fourth-place showing last week at Indianapolis. Nemechek has only a pair of top-10 finishes in road courses this season, with a best of runner-up at the Chicago Street Race.
When it comes to road course racing in the Xfinity Series, veteran Justin Allgaier and his young JR Motorsports teammate Sam Mayer have been setting the pace in 2023.
Allgaier has four top-five finishes on the road courses this season, including a runner-up at Portland, Oregon. and in 11 starts at Watkins Glen, Allgaier has finished inside the top-10 seven times.
The 20-year old Mayer earned his first career Xfinity Series win on a road course last month at Wisconsin’s Road America and was runner-up last weekend at Indianapolis.
Eight drivers have secured positions in the 12-driver Playoff field with wins this season, including Hill, Nemechek, Allgaier, Cole Custer, Mayer, Talking Rock, Georgia’s Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith and Jeb Burton. Josh Berry is ranked highest in points among those without a trophy.
The 12th and final points position is held by Hill’s teammate Sheldon Creed. He’s up 17 points on Parker Kligerman – both well-regarded road course racers.
NASCAR Weekend Preview
NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Go Bowling at The Glen
The Place: Watkins Glen International – Watkins Glen, NY
The Date: Sunday, August 20
The Time: 3 p.m. ET
The Purse: $7,154,312
TV: USA, 2:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 220.5 miles (90 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 20), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 40), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 90)
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Next Race: Shriner’s Children 200
The Place: Watkins Glen International – Watkins Glen, NY
The Date: Saturday, August 19
The Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,257,045
TV: USA, 3 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 200.9 miles (82 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 20), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 40), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 82)
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