Watkins Glen Race Review and Analysis
Going bowling at the Glen! The Nascar Cup Series made its yearly stop at Watkins Glen International. Even with all the pivots today, Kyle Larson takes home the checkered flag. Kyle Larson collects his 2nd win of 2022, he also sweeps the weekend with a win yesterday in the Xfinity race. Larson collects his 18th career win in the Nascar Cup Series and wins back-to-back races in 2021, and now 2022 at Watkins Glen.
(Kyle Larson taking the Victory)
Kyle Larson entering turn 1, locked up his right front tire, which led him to use all of the runoff exit. Larson ushered teammate Chase Elliott up the track, causing Elliott to lose multiple positions. Larson continued to escape from the rest of the pack. A.J. Allmendinger tried his hardest to get near Larson’s rear bumper but he couldn’t get the job done. Allmendinger for Kaulig Racing settled for 2nd. Larson rode off into the Upstate, New York sunset to capture the checkered flag. Kyle Larson picked up his 4th career win on a road course, as he led 5 laps. In a bittersweet ending, Elliott finished 4th.
Let’s rewind to the beginning of today’s race at the Glen. Rain was the main suspect to begin this event. With lightning within an 8-mile radius of the Watkins Glen course, the race was under hold for about an hour. Nascar attempted to start today’s race under wet conditions, with rain tires. After numerous pace laps, Nascar decided to push today’s green flag back by 20 minutes. With puddles, standing water, and worsening conditions on the track, Nascar put out the jet dryers to clean up the track. The track was finally ready, and we got underway from the Glen. When to take off the rain tires became a huge question to drivers and teams. When the time was right, during the first half of stage 1, pit road was loaded with drivers looking for regular slick tires. The change was finally made, and the speeds increased around the course.
(Kyle Larson running laps at the Glen)
1. This is Briscoe’s 4th career stage win. Unfortunate trouble struck Briscoe, as the team looked under the hood for a potential issue he finished 25th. Briscoe also bent a right rear toe-link, he later spun with Ross Chastain in the bus stop section. In a gut-wrenching way, Todd Gilliland broke a trans-axel. Gilliand led 5 laps, as his day was cut short after a stellar start to his race. Gilliland, the 22-year-old rookie, is great on road courses, and superspeedways. Watch out for Gilliland up front next weekend in Daytona. Joey Logano was the stage 2 winner for Team Penske. Logano led 15 laps and finished 3rd. Heading into the inner-loop Tyler Reddick and Mike Rockenfeller made contact in stage 2. Both drivers were able to continue, Reddick finished 7th, and Rockenfeller finished 30th. Corey LaJoie was hit with a penalty for removing equipment out of the box. LaJoie tried playing a strategy earlier in the race, as he finished 27th. Bubba Wallace’s streak comes to a halt here in Watkins Glen. Wallace’s team had a slow 30-second pit stop which derailed his afternoon with a 35th place finish.
Kyle Busch saw a pit road penalty and later spun his #18 car out in the middle of turn 1. Busch finished 32nd, he only has 1 top-10 since June at Gateway. Ross Chastain hopped the curb in the bus stop section of the course, sending Austin Dillon for a spin. Making his highly anticipated debut, Kimi Raikkonen hit the wall, after getting muscled out the way in this ordeal, he finished 37th. Chastain, who’s started many of these issues this year, finished 21st, and Dillon finished 17th. Cody Ware, the first Rick Ware Racing car spun with 23 laps to go. Ware went on to finish 34th. Joey Hand who was putting together an impressive afternoon finished 31st. Hand in a Rick Ware Racing Ford ran in the top-10 for most of the afternoon. Hand spun with 12 laps to go, to end his impressive afternoon. Loris Hezemans got trapped in the sand after getting off course in the final laps. This brought out the final caution with under 10 laps to go. Hezemans finished 33rd.
Let's go through today's top finishers. Larson wins for Hendrick Motorsports. A.J. Allmendinger finishes 2nd for Kaulig Racing. Allmendinger has continued to produce at a high level for Kaulig Racing. We won't see Allmendinger until Bristol in September. Daniel Hemric will take over for the #16 car at Daytona. Third place goes to Joey Logano of Team Penske. Logano ran well, look out for Logano at Daytona. His afternoon ended in a bittersweet way, but Chase Elliott finishes 4th. Fifth place is credited to Daniel Suarez of Trackhouse Racing. Suarez has shown speed these last several weeks, he'll be a threat in Daytona. Sixth place goes to Michael McDowell, he's in a must-win situation for Daytona. McDowell ran great for Front Row Motorsports today. Seventh place goes to Tyler Reddick for Richard Childress Racing. Reddick has shown great speed on road courses, a major rebound for Reddick after an early spin. Eighth place goes to Christopher Bell for Joe Gibbs Racing. Bell was the highest finishing Toyota, as today was rough for the six manufactured cars. Ninth place goes to Chris Buescher of RFK Racing. Buescher will be a name to watch in Daytona next weekend. Erik Jones of Petty GMS Motorsports finished 10th. Jones will be a name to watch in Daytona. Honorable mentions go out to Cole Custer in 11th for Stewart-Haas Racing and Kevin Harvick in 12th for Stewart-Haas Racing. Also, Austin Cindric for Team Penske in 13th, Alex Bowman for Hendrick Motorsports in 14th, and lastly Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for JTG Daughtery Racing in 15th.
(Larson in Victory Lane)
In my opinion, today was solid. It was great to see the final regular season road course this afternoon. The next-gen car debuted on rain tires in wet conditions. It was nice to see several countries represented in today’s race. We saw new faces up front, as Watkins Glen didn’t fail performance-wise. This only builds up the anticipation for the regular season finale Daytona race. We saw a second teammate dust-up in the closing laps between Larson and Elliott. Larson and Elliott tangled back in February at Auto Club Speedway. We move on to Daytona Beach, Florida. We’re in store for an all-time classic as one last playoff spot is remaining. Taking all action into consideration, I’d rate today’s race an 8.7 out of 10.
(The Playoff Standings heading into Daytona)
It’s time for the bright lights. It’s time for chaos, action, aggressiveness, a fight, and one driver's wish to be granted. The 2022 regular-season finale is here, and the time is now! At one track, under the late summer sky, at a 2.5-mile track, is where this will all be settled. The Nascar Cup Series will head to Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Florida. The cutoff race is the race where drivers officially stamp their ticket into the fall playoff field. The Xfinity Series and the Cup Series will make the trip down to Daytona. Xfinity Series qualifying will be at 3:05pm ET, Friday afternoon. The Xfinity Series, Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola will be at 7:30pm ET, August 26th. The Cup Series regular-season finale qualifying will be at 5:05pm ET. Chase Elliott will be crowned the Regular Season Champion before the race. No practice this weekend, both series will unload their haulers, and qualify on speed. The Coke Zero Sugar 400, will be at 7:00pm ET only on NBC. Saturday night, August 27th under the lights, we will determine the final playoff driver to complete the 16-car field in front of a soldout Daytona crowd.
( All images credited to https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/cup-series.)
For next week's race information please view the link down below:
Comments