Around the Track: Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen International has been a fixture on the NASCAR schedule since 1986, providing fans in upstate New York and the Northeast a unique brand of Cup racing on a road course.

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In his latest edition of Cingular's "Around the Track," Jeff Burton talks about Nextel Cup's 20th annual visit to WGI for Sunday afternoon's Sirius Satellite Radio at The Glen.

Watkins Glen's 2.45-mile road course is comprised of a series of mostly high-speed corners connected by long straightaways, which present a definite challenge to 3,400-pound Nextel Cup cars and their drivers.

Since the Nextel Cup Series' last visit, the track has made two major changes to the racetrack configuration.

One involved paving the outside of Turn 1 and eliminating a large gravel trap and the other was cutting down the height of the curbing in the "Inner Loop" -- or chicane -- at the end of the long backstretch.

The run-off area in Turn 1 was a real problem.

In the interest of safety, they had put in a run-off trap there, but if you got in it, you always got stuck, lost a lap and pretty much ruined your day.

There are usually several cautions because of that. They took out that trap and put in asphalt, which I think is much better (because) you can stop on asphalt, you can't stop on grass and you get stuck in the traps.

The more asphalt the tracks put down the better, in my opinion (and) some other racetracks need to have less grass, too.

I also hear they lowered the curbing a great deal in the Inner Loop. That will be a good advantage, though it will make more people think they can pass there and that may not be in our best interest.

Those are the two major changes and I think they are both positive.

Qualifying is really important at Watkins Glen since track position is so vital.

You have to have a good lap since you only get one chance. You don't get two laps there (so) it's crucial to lay your first lap down because it's the only one you've got.

Driving hard at the Glen produces speed. There are some racetracks that if you overdrive, you actually go slower -- but Watkins Glen isn't one of them. You have to get on the edge and go.

We run two road races in a season, at Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen, and the two tracks are pretty different.

Watkins Glen has much more of a superspeedway feel to it with longer straightaways and not as many corners as Infineon (and) it's a much faster racetrack.

Watkins is a heavier braking racetrack because of the longer straightaways. They are both road courses, but the similarities end there.

There are a lot of green flag pit stops and Watkins Glen, where typically you don't see a lot of pit stops during the cautions.

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That makes getting on and off pit road a lot easier. The whole game about road course racing is getting on pit road as soon as you can and hope to get on there before everyone else and then get a caution and immediately you have your track position.

It's real important to be on pit road at the right time and the winning car will most likely pit under green and hope for the caution, which is exactly the opposite of what we have everywhere else.

Pit road at Watkins Glen is fairly easy to get onto, because it's really wide, but the thing about pit road there is the pit road speed is really slow. It feels like it's about 12 miles an hour.

When you talk about racing the racetrack versus racing the competitors, the race at Watkins Glen gets really crowded.

Turn 1 is really difficult. Restarts are tough, because everybody gets in there and is trying to pass by going three wide.

There's not room for three-wide so there are a lot of wrecks going into Turn 1.

Restarts and the start of the race are the hardest, most stressful part of the race because of that. The rest of the time, you can race the racetrack.

It's very important to pay attention to the racetrack and hit your marks and have your car in the right place at the right time. On restarts, you have to do all that in addition to having all the other cars out there.

Restarts are stressful, but the rest of the time you pretty much worry about what you are doing with your team and not (what) everybody else (is doing).

Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Cingular Chevrolet, will take fans Around the Track each race week during the 2005 Nextel Cup season.