See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s GoBowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to its second road course race of the year at Watkins Glen International. “The Glen” is a very different road course from Sonoma Raceway, where the first road course race took place.
Watkins Glen is full of high-speed corners, whereas Sonoma has more low-speed turns.
As a result, we’ll be looking at each driver’s Watkins Glen history much more than his overall road course performance. Practice times and year-to-date driver rating also have a significant factor in my statistical model for the Glen.
Since 2013, five of the six race winners started inside the top six (Joey Logano won from the 16th starting position in 2015). Additionally, every driver since 2013 who led at least 20% of the laps in a single Watkins Glen race started 12th or better.
In other words, it’s going to be hard to win and dominate if you’re starting too far back.
RELATED: Prop this: Can Suarez keep mojo going? | Updated Watkins Glen odds
Inspection takes place at 9 a.m. ET Sunday, and any cars that fail inspection will be sent to the rear of the field for the start of the race. That makes betting favorites prior to inspection extremely hard, since they could be sent to the rear.
As such, I’m holding off on any single-digit odds to win, and looking at one double-digit play for today’s race . Once inspection is complete, I may post more outright bets to win.
In the meantime, I give my thoughts on how to play the favorites, should each pass inspection.
*All odds as of 7:00 a.m. ET on Sunday. A quick explainer on the odds below: A $100 wager on +2000 would profit $2,000.
Brad Keselowski +2000
Keselowski opened at +1200 at the Westgate SuperBook and despite some solid practice sessions, he now finds himself listed at +2000 thanks to a 10th-place qualifying effort.
Keselowski practiced inside the top eight in both five- and 10-lap average in final practice, and was one of two drivers to make a 15-lap run in final practice, suggesting he was happy with his car. Also, we know drivers starting inside the top 12 can lead laps, so Keselowski certainly has a shot to lead laps and therefore a chance win if things fall right.
Keselowski’s track history is also quite strong. Not counting his rookie year, he has finished inside the top three 50% of the time at The Glen, and holds the fifth-best driver rating at the track among active drivers.
He’ll certainly have to overcome race favorites Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Chase Elliott, all of whom have a better driver rating at The Glen and a better starting position, but we can’t bet these guys until inspection is complete.
How to Bet the Favorites
Currently four drivers are listed in the single digits at the Westgate SuperBook. They are:
- Kyle Busch +200
- Martin Truex Jr. +400
- Chase Elliott +400
- Denny Hamlin +900
It’s simply too hard to bet Busch at +200 even if he passes inspection. There’s just too much variability at road courses to feel confident that he’ll win more than 33% of the time.
Should Truex pass inspection, I like a bet on him at +450 or longer, but I haven’t found him beyond +400 yet.
Elliott is listed at +550 at DraftKings Sportsbook, and if he passes inspection, that is a fine bet.
I’d pass on Hamlin at +900, but if he falls into the double digits with a passing car, he’s worth consideration.
Chase Elliott is on the pole for the GoBowling at The Glen on Sunday at Watkins Glen International (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Does the defending race winner at the road course merit a spot in your Fantasy Live lineup? We’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration. Remember that inspection Sunday morning makes the starting lineup official.
PLAY NOW: Set your lineup | How the game works | Tips to set your lineup
RJ Kraft’s Fantasy Live lineup for race day at Watkins Glen:
1. Kyle Busch
2. Martin Truex Jr.
3. Chase Elliott
4. William Byron
5. Denny Hamlin
Garage: Brad Keselowski
Cars to the rear: Ryan Blaney (unapproved adjustments)
RELATED: Odds for Watkins Glen | Lap averages | Weekend preview
Analysis: I’m sticking with my original lineup but moving Elliott into an active spot for Keselowski. I have five of the top six cars in the starting lineup, plus a driver-crew chief combo known for shaking it up and taking risks in the garage. I expect Byron to go full throttle on stage points.
The way Watkins Glen’s stages are (and we saw this in the Xfinity race on Saturday as well as the Cup race last year) drivers don’t have to punt both stages to set themselves up better for the win. Elliott and Truex each won a stage last year and finished 1-2. My point is you may not get stage points in both stages — 19 drivers got stage points in last year’s Cup race; Truex was the only driver to earn stage points in both stages — but the odds are you’ll get some sort of points in the stages from the bulk of your lineup.
For the bonus picks, I like Truex to score the Stage 1 win with Hamlin taking Stage 2 and Kyle Busch bringing home the victory.
Each week in this space, we’ll also highlight two Props Challenge items for players.
MORE: Need Props help? The Action Network has you covered | Play the Props Challenge today
1. Will the polesitter lead the first seven laps? Elliott has one of the best cars this weekend and while the Joe Gibbs Racing fleet will be in hot pursuit, I’ll say YES he leads the first seven laps. Probably not much more than that, though, in Stage 1.
2. Which driver finishes higher? Paul Menard or Ryan Newman? Both drivers qualified outside the top 20 pending inspection but my gut says Newman will do what he always does — grind out a finish that you don’t quite expect. The Roush Fenway Racing driver is currently in the provisional playoff grid so he can’t afford a bad day because there is a hungry pack of drivers waiting to grab that spot. Menard has never scored a top 10 here in 15 starts, so I’ll go with Newman for that reason as well.
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Chase Elliott isn’t racing differently on road courses. He’s just racing better.
And on Saturday, Elliott returned to Watkins Glen International with a vengeance, taking a giant step toward another victory at the track that gave him his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win last year.
Elliott covered the 2.45-mile layout in 69.287 seconds (127.297 mph) to edge his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron for the top starting spot in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the 22nd event on the Cup calendar this year.
RELATED: Starting lineup for Watkins Glen
The Busch Pole Award was Elliott’s first on a road course, his third of the season and the seventh of his career. Most important, it reinforced Elliott’s status as a legitimate contender at the seven-turn track that features right-hand as well as left-hand corners.
“Our NAPA Chevy is fast, which is nice,” Elliott said. “It cooled off a lot (in late afternoon), and the track picked up a lot of pace from practice. So I just tried to find the limits of all that. There were a couple of places where I thought I could get more, but you always want to get more.
“Qualifying well here is important, because the strategy is important. Pitting these cars backwards (with fuel intakes on the right side instead of left), you need good pit selection and track position. This is a great result for our NAPA Chevy team.”
PHOTOS: See every car in Sunday’s field
Elliott finished 13th in his first two races at The Glen. Then last year, he started third and got his breakthrough victory.
“I don’t think I necessarily did anything different today than I did my first two trips,” Elliott said. “You hope you’ve gotten better as time goes on, but I can’t really say my approach was any different. I just think the combination of the cars getting better and us working together more is what helped us get the pole today.”
Byron earned his eighth front-row starting spot of the season. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch (126.976 mph) and Martin Truex Jr. (126.861 mph) qualified third and fourth to lead the Toyota contingent.
Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson will start fifth through eighth, respectively. Aric Almirola claimed the ninth spot on the grid in the fastest Ford.
Early in the first of two qualifying rounds, Erik Jones blew a right front tire in Turn 1. After his car was towed back to pit road, he recovered to qualify 14th.
“I just missed my mark,” Jones said of his entry into the first corner. “I just got in too hot and locked the right front up enough that it blew it out. That’s not what you want to do. I kind of thought we were done, and I didn’t realize that the rule was that if you don’t complete a lap you get to come back in and change tires.
“We put another tire on it, and the DeWalt Camry had good speed. I was just a little conservative on my lap, which I think you can probably understand why after the first time. Still a good starting spot. It has more speed than that, so it’s frustrating in that way, but still nice that we’re starting off better than dead last where we thought we were going to be.”
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — NASCAR officials disqualified the second-finishing Kaulig Racing No. 10 Chevrolet of AJ Allmendinger for a technical violation after Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen International.
Allmendinger had led a race-high 24 of 82 laps in the Zippo 200, crossing the finish line 1.168 seconds behind first-time winner Austin Cindric on the 2.45-mile course. But his Kaulig Racing entry was found to be too low on both the right-rear and left-rear corners in post-race inspection, dropping Allmendinger to a last-place result in the 37-car field.
RELATED: Official race results
Xfinity Series director Wayne Auton said that the No. 10 car was inspected for damage in post-race inspection. He also added that the Matt Kaulig-owned organization has until noon ET Monday to file an appeal.
Allmendinger, a former regular in the Monster Energy Series, has returned to NASCAR competition this season on a partial schedule in the Xfinity Series. Both of his starts thus far, however, have resulted in disqualifications. Officials threw out Allmendinger’s apparent third-place finish at Daytona International Speedway in July, demoting him to last place.
Auton said that the Kaulig team’s second offense would not necessarily result in a stiffer penalty.
“No, we’ll obviously talk about it, but whenever you get DQ-d, I think that’s a pretty big penalty in itself,” Auton said. “So we consider this race closed now. The other cars have passed inspection.”
There is no minimum height requirement in the Monster Energy Series, but the Xfinity Series and Gander Outdoors Truck Series have a ride-height rule.
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Opportunity knocked for Austin Cindric after a mechanical failure knocked Kyle Busch out of Saturday’s Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International.
And after Cindric and road course ace AJ Allmendinger traded knocks on the final two laps of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, Cindric—on fresher tires—emerged the winner for the first time in his career.
Following post-race inspection, Allmendinger’s No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet was disqualified for a rear height violation, dropping Allmendinger to last place in the running order. But fans left the track with the memory of an intense battle over the closing laps.
RELATED: No. 10 car disqualified at Watkins Glen | Race results
When NASCAR called the sixth caution on Lap 69 of 82, Brian Wilson, crew chief on Cindric’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford, made a courageous call that later proved decisive. Wilson brought Cindric from the lead to pit road for fresh tires, dropping the 20-year-old driver to ninth in the running order for a restart on Lap 73.
An immediate caution for a pile-up in Turn 1 left Cindric in sixth for the next restart on Lap 76. When Christopher Bell was knocked sideways in Turn 2, and Justin Allgaier and Tyler Reddick lost momentum while fighting for the second spot, Cindric charged around the outside into second place and chased Allmendinger.
It took three laps for Cindric to trim Allmendinger’s advantage from 1.714 seconds to .521 seconds, and from that point, the game was on. On Lap 81, Cindric nudged Allmendinger up the track in the carousel and took the lead. Allmendinger returned the favor approaching Turn 7 and regained the top spot as Cindric was forced wide.
But Allmendinger entered Turn 7 too wide and Cindric drove back underneath to lead Lap 81. On the final circuit he pulled away to win by 1.168 seconds and clinched a spot in the Xfinity Series Playoffs.
Cindric and Wilson had discussed the possibility of a late pit stop before the race.
“I’ve been on the other side of it,” Cindric said. “(Bell) had been pretty good all day, so it was going to be hard to hold him off depending on which lane he had on the restart.”
The only thing that went wrong was Cindric’s celebratory burnout. But it was helpful that pole winner Kyle Busch had critical issues during the race itself.
“I was kind of bummed,” Cindric said. “I broke the clutch out of it trying to do a burnout, so my guys are going to have to do a little extra work and I’ll have to buy them an even bigger dinner. We talked before the weekend, and we knew something would have to go wrong with (Kyle Busch), but I’m so blessed to be able to be here.”
After winning the first stage and pitting thereafter, Busch had just passed Ryan Blaney for the lead entering the inner loop when the upper control arm on the left front of his No. 18 Toyota broke. Busch retired from the race and opened the door for Cindric.
With the Allmendinger disqualification, Bell inherited the runner-up spot, followed by Allgaier, who traded hard knocks with Ross Chastain, eliminating Chastain from the race after hard contact with the barrier in the carousel. Blaney and Reddick ran fourth and fifth.
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race didn’t even get through the first of three stages before the battle of bumpers and words between Ross Chastain and Justin Allgaier escalated to a thermometer-bursting height at Watkins Glen International.
Chastain, one of the hottest drivers in NASCAR’s three national tours, was short-circuited by retaliation from Allgaier, who drove on to a third-place finish in the Zippo 200. Chastain exited after completing just 19 of the 82 laps, coming home in 33rd place.
Allgaier’s JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet spun and made contact with the retaining wall near the bus-stop chicane after receiving a shove from Chastain’s No. 4 JD Motorsports Chevrolet on Lap 14 of the Zippo 200. Allgaier continued, then gave Chastain a solid bump in return six laps later, sending his car careening into the Turn 5 barrier on the final lap of Stage 1.
RELATED: Official race results
Allgaier owned up to the purpose behind his payback bump, explaining that previous altercations with Chastain had built up his anger level.
“We’ve had a rocky relationship over our racing career,” said Allgaier, who recovered to lead 13 laps in the final stage. “Unfortunately, I’ve been on the receiving end a number of times of him running into me, and he flat wrecked me in the bus stop back there. At some point, you just get to a point of where you’re tired of getting run into, and so I ran back into him. I had no intention of putting him in the wall. I wanted to spin him out, for sure. I wanted him to kind of have the same feeling that I had a few laps before whenever he spun me out, and I did it in a position where there was nobody else around us and made sure that if it was going to be a crash that it was just going to be the two of us.
“I hate it for Johnny (Davis) and the 4 team because obviously with the budget that they’re on, they don’t need to be wrecking race cars, but on the flip side of it, he knew what he was doing when he got into the bus stop and wrecked me on purpose, and then even when I caught him back, he slowed way, way down and he knew that I was mad at him. You can’t race like that and not have something come of it.”
Chastain issued a fiery reaction back to his crew over the team’s communications immediately after the incident, saying he would find Allgaier at a later time. After a trip to the infield care center for a mandatory check-up, Chastain was more measured with his words.
“Well no, you don’t expect to get wrecked like that at a NASCAR national series event,” Chastain said. “Just racing hard and mistakes on all sides, but I’m glad that my nine-point safety harness did its job because I hit the wall a ton.”
Pressed for if Allgaier’s aggression crossed a boundary, Chastain demurred. “I don’t know. I better keep my opinions to myself on that.”
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — One week removed from a Bubba Wallace gesture that touched off a testy post-race conversation at Pocono Raceway, Daniel Suarez’s arrival in New York’s Finger Lakes region was greeted with talk about another finger with a ripple effect.
RELATED: Full schedule for Watkins Glen
Suarez was in a jocular mood Saturday between Monster Energy Series practices at the 2.45-mile road course in Watkins Glen, saying that he and Wallace remain friends after their late-race aggression last Sunday, Wallace’s middle finger flip and their chippy discussion that followed. That pit-road chat spilled over to social media early in the week, but Suarez said he doesn’t expect to see any gestures again.
“He won’t. I guarantee you that,” Suarez said with a smile. “We are good friends but sometimes he drives a little bit over his head on the race track, and he’s been in wrecks a couple of times. He’s been a little bit too aggressive with myself or different situations. I don’t get to race him very often, but when I do, he’s a little bit too aggressive, which is OK.
“I don’t have a problem, but sometimes you can cross the line and you can get mad and things happen.”
Wallace explained the intent behind his gesture during a Tuesday appearance at Charlotte Motor Speedway, saying that he meant it in a playful manner. “I do it to guys I like and I can race around,” Wallace said, mentioning Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. as fellow drivers that he’s similarly saluted.
MORE: Wallace’s side of Pocono dust-up
On Saturday, Suarez repeated his mantra that those gestures equal fighting words. He also wasn’t buying the “all in good fun” explanation.
“He said he was playing, but I’m not dumb. I know he wasn’t,” Suarez said. “That was his excuse, but that’s OK with everybody. We move on and we focus on the next one.”
But which part of the interaction stirred the most anger: the close-quarters racing or the gesture?
“The way that he raced, I know him. That’s the way that he does things,” Suarez said. “I think that sometimes he’s smart, sometimes he’s not. The way that he did things and then flipped me, and then I got even more mad when he said that he was joking when I knew perfectly he wasn’t. It’s all good. It’s in the past. We’re friends. We have known each other for a long time. There is always that extra confidence in us, we know that we can fight and we can be good the next day. I get fired up pretty quick when it comes to that kind of stuff, as you guys can see.”
Suarez discarded the notion that his perilous spot in the NASCAR playoff picture may have fueled his irritation. The 27-year-old driver for Stewart-Haas Racing is still looking for his first premier-series win and sits 18th in the standings, just outside of the provisional postseason field.
“That thing that, ‘Hey, Daniel is getting pressure’ or ‘the tempers are getting into his head,’ but that has nothing to do with it,” Suarez said. “I can be leading the championship and I will get fired up as good as I get fired up right now. That’s just myself. I’ve been like this since I can remember.”
Defending race winner Chase Elliott recorded the fastest practice lap in the final 50-minute session at Watkins Glen International, moving his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet around the track at 126.901 mph on Saturday afternoon.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch also cracked the top five in the session, with Truex racing his No. 19 Toyota 125.418 mph for second-fastest and Busch moving his No. 18 Toyota 125.074 mph for fifth-fastest.
RELATED: Sort through 5- and 10-lap averages | Final practice results
Matt DiBenedetto, who led for most of the practice until a late-run surge, was third-fastest in his No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Toyota at 125.391 mph.
Michael McDowell was fourth in the session after his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford went around the 2.45-mile road course 125.259 mph.
The Monster Energy Series returns to the track at 6:40 p.m. ET for Busch Pole Qualifying (NBCSN/NBC Sports App) to determine the starting order for Sunday’s GoBowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
FIRST PRACTICE
Alex Bowman snuck in the fastest first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice lap just as the 50-minute session was concluding at Watkins Glen International on Saturday, wheeling his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet around the 2.45-mile road course at 125.888 mph.
Bowman, who made the final lap in qualifying trim, edged out Kyle Busch for the fastest time. Busch recorded a fast lap of 125.786 mph in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on Saturday morning, just ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 JGR Toyota at 125.643 mph.
RELATED: First practice results
Defending race winner Chase Elliott was fourth-fastest at 125.623 mph in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, while Kyle Larson rounded out the top five in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet at 125.568 mph in the practice session in advance of Sunday’s GoBowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
The caution came out briefly when Matt Tifft spun his No. 36 Ford coming out of the carousel about seven minutes into the 50-minute session, and Elliott had to maneuver quickly to the left to avoid wrecking. Neither car made impact with anything, but Tifft brought his car to the garage before returning to the track.
Stewart Friesen punched his golden ticket into the 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Playoffs with his first career victory in Thursday night’s Eldora Dirt Derby.
That’s bad news for the rest of the competition with just one race remaining in the regular season.
RELATED: Friesen wins at Eldora | Race results | Playoff standings
Six drivers are now locked into the eight-driver postseason before the Corrigan Oil 200 on Aug. 10 at Michigan International Speedway (1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriuxXM NASCAR Radio) — race winners Friesen, Austin Hill, Johnny Sauter, Ross Chastain, Brett Moffitt and Tyler Ankrum.
Although two playoffs spots are technically available, ThorSport Racing’s Grant Enfinger is set to clinch his first Gander Trucks Regular Season Championship by just starting next Saturday’s finale, and currently holds a 52-point lead over Matt Crafton. That gives Enfinger the seventh slot before the race turns one lap old.
What bodes well for Crafton is how it’s mathematically impossible for the No. 88 ThorSport Racing driver to be caught on points, as he’s ahead by 63 points on teammate Ben Rhodes, who sits fifth in the standings. Friesen and Moffitt (third and fourth in the standings, respectively) are already locked into the postseason with race wins.
A run-in with Tyler Dippel in Thursday’s showdown at Eldora Speedway shuffled Rhodes back to a 14th-place finishing position after he showed promise for a top-10 run the majority of the night. Now forced into a must-win scenario to make the playoffs, Rhodes let his frustrations be known after another tough race.
“Daytona we got wrecked, Kentucky we got wrecked, here (Eldora) we got wrecked, engine blew at Chicago, transmission issue at Texas, I mean I can go on with this list,” a frustrated Rhodes said outside his hauler Thursday night. “Things out of our control are taking us out of the playoffs.”
“I’m just sad that people can eliminate you that quick,” he added.
Behind Rhodes in the standings are Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland and Sheldon Creed, drivers who are all faced with the same situation — win or miss the big dance. With a postseason bid on the line, those drivers will be in desperation mode until the very end Saturday in the Irish Hills.