Surprise winners at Watkins Glen International

Over the years we've gotten used to seeing a host of wild-card winners at the wild Watkins Glen International. A victory at The Glen from an unexpected winner has become even more crucial over the past several years, with a playoff berth on the line via victory. Take a look back at some of Watkins Glen's more notable surprise winners.

Billy Wade

Year: 1964
Starting position: 1
Laps led: 41
Notable: The Watkins Glen win was Wade's fourth straight for the season -- the first time NASCAR had seen that happen. As it turns out, it would be the fourth and final win of his career.

Tim Richmond

Year: 1986
Starting position: 1
Laps led: 29
Notable: The first race held at Watkins Glen since 1965, any driver in the field would qualify as a wild card in this one. Richmond held off a second-place Darrell Waltrip, who led 22 laps of his own.

Ernie Irvan

Year: 1991
Starting position: 3
Laps led: 39
Notable: Irvan led a substantial amount of laps in this one and won by a whopping seven seconds, but it was a bit of a surprise. Just Irvan's third career win, it came after three years of finishing 24th or worse in his previous starts at The Glen.

Kyle Petty

Year: 1992
Starting position: 2
Laps led: 19
Notable: One of just eight NASCAR Cup Series wins for Petty -- in 829 starts -- he had it going in this one. In 19 other starts at The Glen, the son of The King never had another top-five finish.

Geoff Bodine

Year: 1996
Starting position: 13
Laps led: 15
Notable: Bodine's 18th and final win came at the age of 47. He finished second the following year, but never again finished in the top 20 in Watkins Glen after that.

Steve Park

Year: 2000
Starting position: 18
Laps led: 53
Notable: The first of Steve Park's two career wins -- and perhaps the biggest wild-card win of them all -- was a dominant one, even holding off Watkins Glen master Mark Martin. It was one of just two top-10 finishes he had in seven starts at Watkins Glen, as well.

Robby Gordon

Year: 2003
Starting position: 14
Laps led: 30
Notable: Gordon notched his third and final win in the NASCAR Cup Series -- across 396 starts -- after taking the W at Sonoma earlier in the season.

Juan Pablo Montoya

Year: 2010
Starting position: 3
Laps led: 74
Notable: Montoya's second and final NASCAR win was a dominant one that truly showcased his road-course expertise.

Marcos Ambrose

Year: 2011
Starting position: 3
Laps led: 21
Notable: In one of NASCAR's most thrilling finishes, Ambrose held off a hard charging Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch -- who led 49 laps -- to pick up his first career NASCAR Cup Series win.

AJ Allmendinger

Year: 2014
Starting position: 6
Laps led: 29
Notable: Allmendinger held off two-time winner Marcos Ambrose, landing his first Cup Series win and giving us one of the more memorable Victory Lane celebrations.

Chase Elliott

Year: 2018
Starting position: 3
Laps led: 52
Notable: After eight runner-up finishes in his first 98 NASCAR Cup Series starts, Elliott secured his first win with a strong performance at Watkins Glen. The surprise is that his first win came on a road course, although given family history -- dad Bill Elliott's first win came at road course Riverside -- maybe it shouldn't be much too shocking.