Road racing all the rage as Cup Series rolls to The Glen

Preview Show
Marc Fein and Mike Bell on Denny Hamlin's emotional win, Kyle Busch on the Chase bubble and what it will take to win at The Glen.
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Fantasy Preview
Mike Bell breaks down his fantasy favorites for the 11-turn track at Watkins Glen.
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Garage Expert
Larry McReynolds explains how different tire pressures change the way a race car handles.
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Track Facts
Nikki Alexander previews the road course in New York -- from the history to recent winners, all you need to know about The Glen
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Race to the Chase
"Watkins Glen is a great track, what I consider a proper road course," said Brian Vickers, 104 points behind 12th-place Greg Biffle and one of the drivers on the Chase bubble. "It is fast, has great passing zones, high-speed corners, great S curves up the hill, and if you have a good car ...
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Breaking down the Top 12

Twelve of the top 16 positions in the standings changed hands after the Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Kyle Busch, for example, moved up a spot to 13th, but he is further out of 12th today than he was at this time last week. We explain that and more in our weekly breakdown of the top 12:

1. Tony Stewart, 3,188 points -- Stewart wasn't a factor in the race and struggled to his ninth consecutive top-10 finish. The back story: The chassis on the car wasn't built by Hendrick Motorsports. It was from before Stewart became part of Stewart-Haas Racing. Hmmm.

Bubble watch

Kyle Busch is pondering the unthinkable -- what if he doesn't make the Chase?

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By the Numbers

On the other hand, Busch is the only Chase bubble driver with a victory at Watkins Glen.

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Two of the road

Road course season sweep

Driver	Year
Kyle Busch	2008
Tony Stewart	2005
Robby Gordon	2003
Jeff Gordon	1999
Jeff Gordon	1998

Note: Kasey Kahne, who has never finished better than 14th at Watkins Glen, won at Sonoma.

2. Jimmie Johnson, 2,991 -- Johnson was three laps down and still finished 13th. If this had been a Chase race, that kind of effort by the 48 team likely would have saved Johnson's championship hopes. The difference Monday between finishing 13th and 36th -- where Johnson spent a good chunk of the second half of the race was 69 points. Johnson's margin over runner-up Carl Edwards in last year's Chase was 69 points. Double hmmm.

3. Jeff Gordon, 2,989 -- Another race, another top-10. That's nice, but it won't help when the points are reset for the start of the Chase. T-minus five races to go for Gordon to pick up more bonus points for regular-season wins.

4. Kurt Busch, 2,751 -- Busch finished ninth, one spot behind Gordon. That gives him 11 top-10s, one more than last year. He also is 14 spots better in the standings.

5. Denny Hamlin, 2,713 -- Hamlin ended a 50-race winless drought. He led the most laps for the third time this season; in two other races he has led the second-most laps. Which leads to this thought: Did the dam break Monday? If it did, Hamlin's win has Chase implications.

6. Carl Edwards, 2,665 -- Can a guy be sixth in the standings, yet be in the midst of a disappointing season? You bet. Winless Edwards finished outside the top 10 for the third consecutive race and for the fifth time in the past six.

7. Kasey Kahne, 2,642 -- Kahne finished in the top five for the second time in his past three races and now has four this season, equaling his top-fives for 2008. He also led 35 laps. Seven of Kahne's nine top-10s have come in the past 10 races. Kahne is gaining momentum at just the right time.

8. Juan Montoya, 2,631 -- Speaking of momentum, Montoya moved up two spots with his first top-five of the season. His second-place finish gave him 10 top-10s, one more than he had in his first two seasons combined. Better yet, after weeks of dancing on the bubble, he is now 169 points ahead of 13th place and showing no signs of letting up.

9. Ryan Newman, 2,627 -- All the momentum Newman built earlier this season is gone. Since posting five top-fives in a six-race stretch, Newman has one top-10 in his past seven races. He dropped two spots but is still 165 points north of Busch. It would take a monumental collapse for Newman to miss the Chase. But that's a wildly extreme statement. If Newman has championship aspirations, he needs to enter the Chase with momentum, not as an afterthought.

10. Mark Martin, 2,622 -- Martin finished seventh for this third consecutive top-10. He also is off the bubble, as he leads Busch by 160 points. It's now looking as if the series' current wins leader is going to carry all those bonus points into the Chase.

11. Matt Kenseth, 2,564 -- If you watched the Pocono race, you would have thought Kenseth and David Reutimann were joined at the bumper. For most of the race, the two were rarely far from each other. Kenseth entered Pocono in 12th, 68 points ahead of 13th-place Reutimann. Then Hamlin made a mistake, got into the back of Reutimann and sent him spinning -- right out of Chase contention. Reutimann finished 29th and dropped three spots, 121 points back. Kenseth finished 11th and leads Busch by 102 points.

12. Greg Biffle, 2,563 -- Even though Biffle lost a spot, he has a bigger cushion over 13th place now than he did when he took the green flag at Pocono. Biffle led Reutimann by 84 points but leads Busch by 101. Biffle helped himself by finishing 15th, one spot ahead of Busch.

Top five and five to watch

Here's a look at the top five in points and five drivers to watch at Watkins Glen. All statistical references are for Cup Series races at The Glen unless otherwise indicated. Driver Rating is based on the past four races at the track.

• Top five ...

1. Tony Stewart, 134.0 Driver Rating -- Stewart and Jeff Gordon are the all-time wins leaders at The Glen with four. But all of Stewart's wins have come the past seven races. Two of those wins came from the pole. If qualifying is rained out, Stewart starts from the pole. By the way, qualifying has been rained out four of the past five years.

Johnson

2. Jimmie Johnson, 106.8 -- Johnson has yet to win a road race, but he keeps getting closer. At The Glen, he has four top-10s in seven starts. The last time qualifying wasn't rained out, 2006, Johnson started fifth.

3. Jeff Gordon, 97.4 -- Gordon's last victory was in 2001, which was his fourth win in a five-year stretch. Since then, he has one top-10 in seven races. His lone top-10, a ninth in 2007, is his most memorable moment in that stretch -- and it is a bad one. Untouched, Gordon spun out while leading two laps from the finish, giving Stewart the win.

4. Kurt Busch, 96.4 -- Busch has a mediocre record at The Glen -- two top-10s in eight starts with a 21.4 average finish. Perhaps mediocre is too kind, but if you remove his first race as a rookie (29th) and his two DNF's (41st and 39th), you have five finishes from 10th to 19th. That's mediocre.

5. Denny Hamlin, 106.2 -- Hamlin is carrying the momentum of his Pocono victory to a track on which he has performed very well: three starts, three top-10s. He has yet to lead a lap, though. He is solidly in the Chase, so he has a green light take a chance along the way if it means getting a win -- unless, of course, it means muscling past David Reutimann.

• Five to watch ...

9. Ryan Newman, 80.6 -- Unlike Juan Montoya, who is four points ahead of Newman in the standings, Newman is going in the wrong direction at a time he should be building momentum heading into the Chase. He has one top-10 in the past two months. He is still a hefty 165 points ahead of 13th-place Kyle Busch, but Newman has one top-10 in his past five starts at The Glen and was 26th last year, when Busch won. The difference between first and 26th is 100 points, excluding bonus points.

Kenseth

11. Matt Kenseth, 73.7. Kenseth is on the bubble but not to the extent he has been for most of the season. He leads Busch by 102 points, but that's still not a safe margin. Kenseth is winless at The Glen and last scored a top-10 in 2004. In the four races since, Busch has three top-10s and a win.

12. Greg Biffle, 64.2 -- Biffle shouldn't feel comfortable, either. He leads Busch by 101 points. Biffle's record at the Glen is horrible: one top-10 in six starts with four finishes 30th or worse. His average finish is 28.7. There is hope for Biffle, though. Kasey Kahne won at Sonoma in June after never finishing better than 23rd and finishing 31st or worse in his other four starts.

13. Kyle Busch, 100.0 -- Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs said this week all Busch needs to do to make the Chase is "finish." What he needs to do Sunday is finish as far ahead of Biffle (and Kenseth) as possible.

14. Brian Vickers, 68.1 -- Vickers is 104 points behind Biffle, and his goal is the same as Busch's. Vickers has one top-10 in five races with a 22.6 average finish, so he's not much better than Biffle at The Glen. But he did start from the pole at Sonoma in June. Unfortunately for Vickers, he could parlay that into only a 16th-place finish. Even if he doesn't have the race of his life, he still must finish as far ahead of Biffle as he can.