@nascarcasm: Glensanity! Wildest Watkins Glen moments

Watkins Glen International, the road course tucked into the beautiful hills of New York’s Finger Lakes region, might not seem like an epicenter of on-track insanity, but it is. Over the years, this road course has provided some of our most memorable, bizarre, and WTF moments. You wouldn’t think that of a road course, but it’s true. Let’s have a look.

Watkins Glen is where a young Xfinity Series driver named Jimmie Johnson lost control of his No. 92 Herzog Motorsports Chevrolet by Turn 1 and sailed head-on into the padded barrier. He then emerged from the car with a very obvious sense of accomplishment that only race-car drivers or stuntmen that have jumped 40 school buses on a motorbike can feel. Not sure what happened to this guy, Jimmie Johnson.

Watkins Glen is where, in a 2016 Xfinity Series race, Derrike Cope’s car suffered a rather bizarre tire explosion. Conveniently, he was able to slow down so we could all get a tremendous view. Yes, this was an anomaly. No, this wasn’t a severe penalty once issued to cars that missed the bus stop chicane.

Watkins Glen is where the first and last red-flag on-track autograph session took place in 2007. A fan thought it might be a good idea to hop the fence while the cars were stopped to ask Matt Kenseth for a signature. It was not, in fact, a good idea. Come for the race, stay for the Darwinism.

Watkins Glen is where in 2019, Bubba Wallace sent Kyle Busch into the Turn-1 runoff area late in the race. Based on the crowd reaction at the time, no one really objected to the move.

Watkins Glen is the track that somehow managed to elicit an uncharacteristic level of anger out of Jimmie Johnson in 2019. Jimmie’s the most peaceful guy in the world so Blaney must have done something. This remains in history as our most handsome post-race altercation to date.

Watkins Glen is the site of the first Cup Series win for both AJ Allmendinger and JTG Daugherty Racing. Allmendinger held off road-course ace Marcos Ambrose in the thrilling closing laps of the race, and oh my, the celebration was memorable. Team co-owner Brad Daugherty hoisted Allmendinger in the air, resulting in brief altitude sickness for Allmendinger.

Watkins Glen is where Regan Smith decided in 2015 that he really, really wanted to have Ty Dillon’s hat after an Xfinity Series race.

Watkins Glen has been the site of some intense crashes, such as this one that collected David Ragan and David Reutimann in 2011. Amazingly, both walked away. Rough lap for Davids.

Watkins Glen is where a most harrowing push-shove-slap incident took place between Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya following a wreck near Turn 1. Montoya was trying to make the case that he had been pushed into Harvick, but Harvick wasn’t buying it. Pleased to report neither driver was injured during this brutal fracas. Years later, after a race at Texas Motor Speedway, Harvick would shove Keselowski into an incident. God, I love irony.

Watkins Glen is where one of the greatest final laps in NASCAR history took place in 2012. Brad Keselowski, Marcos Ambrose and Kyle Busch (briefly) took the white flag and proceeded to cut, dice, beat and bang all the way around the track, with Ambrose prevailing. Seriously, find this finish on YouTube and BE AMAZED.

Watkins Glen, as you probably recall, is where Chase Elliott had enough fuel in 2019 to earn his first Cup Series win but not enough fuel to make it to Victory Lane. Teammate and all-around good guy Jimmie Johnson gave Elliott a push back, which on a road course is no easy feat. Tandem racing was hard enough on a superspeedway. Personally I would have just made him walk all the way back but I have a cold, cold heart.

Watkins Glen is where Boris Said and Greg Biffle decided that friendship was not in their future. Here you see Boris pulling the “OK, OK … I’m calm … SIKE” move you used to see a lot between guests on “The Jerry Springer Show” who really just wanted to throw hands. Afterwards, Said called Biffle a “scaredy cat” which led to a TV-14 rating for language that we haven’t been able to get rid of since.