Posted on by Staff Report

William Byron made his 300th start in the NASCAR Cup Series after taking the green flag in Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen International, but ran into trouble during Stage 2.

On Lap 44, Byron was spun in the bus stop section of the 2.45-mile road course and was hit by 2023 series titleholder Ryan Blaney. The No. 24 Chevrolet suffered a broken toe link and dropped multiple laps down.

Byron ultimately finished three laps down in 36th, his worst finish of 2026.

RELATED: Byron’s driver page | Race Results

The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has made all of his starts at the premier level with the same team — joining a shortlist of drivers to do the same such as Hall of Famers Richard Petty, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, and teammate Chase Elliott and Jeff Gordon, vice chairman at Hendrick.

Starting on iRacing and in Legends cars, Byron caught the eye of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and competed for JR Motorsports in the late-model scene in 2014. Byron then broke through into the Craftsman Truck Series in 2016 and stomped the competition with seven wins in 23 races.

Despite not winning the series title that year, Byron earned the call-up to the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, driving the No. 9 Chevrolet for JRM.

Byron tallied four O’Reilly wins in 2017, culminating in a championship and a fast track to Hendrick Motorsports for his rookie campaign in the Cup Series in 2018.

Filling in the shoes of Gordon after Elliott moved from the No. 24 to the No. 9 for the 2018 season, Byron had immense pressure to succeed and it bit him early with winless campaigns in his first two Cup seasons.

Byron eventually broke through in 2020 with his first career trip to Victory Lane in the Daytona summer night race.

He’s tallied 15 Cup triumphs since, highlighted by back-to-back wins in the Daytona 500 (2024, 2025). Byron has qualified for the Cup Series’ postseason in eight consecutive seasons, with a best campaign in 2023 as he scored six victories and finished third in the final standings.

MORE: Byron through the years

Now 12 starts into 2026, Byron sits 12th in the Cup Series standings.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano has seen this story before. The No. 22 Team Penske bunch has been through the ringer multiple times, only to come out the other side stronger.

But with three consecutive finishes of 30th or worse, Logano is coming off the worst three-race swings of his future first-ballot Hall of Fame career. It’s the first time he’s hit those numbers since two months into his rookie Cup season in 2009 while competing for Joe Gibbs Racing.

RELATED: Watkins Glen lineup | What to Watch

“It’s not far off of where we’ve been in the past,” Logano said on Saturday at Watkins Glen International, fresh off qualifying sixth for Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “I don’t think we’ve had a stretch of races this tough, though. This is probably a little more extreme than we’ve had.”

The rough patch began with a 30th-place effort last month at Kansas Speedway. He was near the front of the lead draft the next weekend at Talladega Superspeedway before getting collected in a 26-car melee. Last week at Texas Motor Speedway, his race was cut short just after the one-third mark, drilling Cole Custer’s No. 41 car on pit road.

Since finishing seventh at Bristol Motor Speedway, Logano has collected 17 points combined in the last three events, sinking to 17th on the outside of The Chase grid, seven points below Chase Briscoe for the final postseason ticket.

“You just keep grinding. What are you supposed to do? You can’t quit,” Logano said when discussing his mindset moving forward. “You’ve got to keep pushing through. It’s a long season, a long way to go. Yeah, it’s been tough — I can’t hide from that. It’s frustrating; it’s hard. I’ve also been here before.

“This is where the tough get going. It is what it is, you have to keep figuring things out and figure out how to be better and get ourselves back where we need to be in points.”

There is room for optimism. During Logano’s most recent championship surge in 2024, he fell as low as 17th in the regular-season championship standings after the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend.

However, the new championship format rewards consistency. Logano holds an average finish of 21.0 — on pace to be the worst of his Cup career — through the first 11 races, best enough for 22nd of the 36 Cup competitors. It ranks worst of the Penske trio (Ryan Blaney 13.1; Austin Cindric 19.0) and below fellow Ford drivers Chris Buescher (11.3), Brad Keselowski (13.3), Ryan Preece (13.8) and Zane Smith (20.1). Logano is looking to end a 36-race winless streak, dating back to the first weekend of May in 2025 at Texas.

Logano isn’t dwelling on any negativity. He knows the capability of the No. 22 team, led by three-time championship-winning crew chief Paul Wolfe. And before wrecking on pit road at Texas, he saw some of that potential rise as he was driving through the field on a treacherous intermediate.

Said Logano: “I look at Texas before we got in that pit-road wreck — speed was there, car was fast, arguably the fastest car that last run as we were trying to get our way through the field. I felt good about that. There are some positives to take out of all those things. So you look at that, learn from the mistakes, and you move on.”

MORE: Paint Scheme Preview | Fantasy Fastlane

Another positive was Logano’s sixth-place qualifying effort for Watkins Glen. For the last number of seasons, road courses were among Penske’s weakest spots. On Sunday, all three entries will take the green flag from inside the top 10, with Cindric leading the charge in third place.

The 2015 Watkins Glen winner has only three top 10s in the last nine visits to the Finger Lakes region. But early track position could set the No. 22 team up well and bank immediate stage points.

“We were in that mode anyways,” Logano said. “You have to look at any of these races these days like, ‘OK, how do you maximize your day?’ Is that by finishing well or creating the most points possible? Sometimes, that means giving up a stage to get the most points possible just depending on where you’re at.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Jesse Love sat in his No. 2 Chevrolet for an extended moment after Saturday’s devastating finish at Watkins Glen International. It was an uneasy bit of reflection, made all the more harsh by how it happened and who had the ultimate benefit.

Love finished with the hardest of hard-luck second places in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at The Glen, letting the lead and what would have been a first victory of the year slip away in the last turn of the last lap. Connor Zilisch, his longtime friend and a road-course standard bearer, was there to pounce, slipping by to win by 0.262 seconds.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Love, the defending series champion, had been in the unenviable task of managing fuel strategy over the final stretch of the Mission 200 at The Glen, all while watching Zilisch close in through his rearview mirror. The 21-year-old Richard Childress Racing driver said those factors broke his concentration. A late entry to the last turn and a right-front tire lock-up were the miscalculations that gave Zilisch the room he needed.

“It’s been a lot of work,” Love said, apologizing as his voice cracked with emotion. “Sorry, I put so much effort into the road-course side of things over the last year and a half, and because of that, I care so much about it. The pieces were there today, this weekend, and I probably wasn’t missing the skill today, I was missing the mental strength to do my job in a situation like that, and it catches me off guard because that’s not who I am, and I’m better than that. And you know, I probably need to feel this pain for a while to be better because of it.”

Zilisch’s mother was among the first to arrive at the No. 2 Chevy to console Love, and the race winner noted the level of respect that the two have held for each other. Using a similar last-corner move in 2023, Love previously got the better of Zilisch in an ARCA Menards Series thriller at The Glen, brushing his way by at the same point of the course. Zilisch was also on the losing end of their championship battle in last year’s O’Reilly Series finale at Phoenix Raceway.

Saturday, Love took the loss especially hard.

“I’ve been very fortunate to not have many traumatizing experiences in my life, but this is the worst pain I’ve ever experienced,” Love said. “I don’t know why. I think I’m just embarrassed at myself and frustrated. He’s been my pedestal on this style of racing since I met him, and I’ve worked so hard, and so many people have worked so hard for me to have days like this where I come out on the other side of it, and you know, I let those people down today so that I don’t take that lightly.”

On a day where Zilisch, Brent Crews and Shane van Gisbergen had some of the strongest showings, Love eventually rotated to the lead after a pit stop on the 48th of 82 laps, positioning him for a 34-lap run to the finish on his final tank of gas. Love took the top spot on Lap 64 after the pit-road cycle was complete.

Zilisch launched a furious pursuit over the final stretch, pressing on even after his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet suffered damage in a pair of incidents – clipping the inner loop grass and also brushing the final-turn barrier on Lap 77. Love was forced to manage an aggressive fuel-conservation play, all while staying aware of Zilisch’s resilient charge.

No. 2 RCR crew chief Danny Stockman Jr. admitted the finish was difficult to process. Asked about Love’s emotional reaction after the race, Stockman replied, “Yeah, I’m struggling myself.”

The crew chief told NASCAR.com, “These races are so hard to win, and it’s difficult. It’s a difficult pill to swallow, but I’m behind my driver 110%. I try to teach these kids right and right from wrong, and I’m glad to hear that he did a good interview and all that stuff, but it’s just when you’re that close and you’re however many feet it was (behind), it’s just a heartbreak, for sure.”

Jesse Love gets a pat on the back from crew chief Danny Stockman Jr. on pit road at Watkins Glen International
Zack Albert | NASCAR Digital Media

The defeat extended Richard Childress Racing’s drought in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series road-course races. The last such triumph came in August 2016, when Michael McDowell scored his lone O’Reilly win driving the RCR No. 2 Chevrolet.

For a time, it appeared Love’s teammate Austin Hill might also carry the team’s hopes. He ran second to Love in the late stages until giving way to Zilisch with seven laps remaining. Hill was on the same pit strategy as Love, but his No. 21 Chevy ran dry on the final lap and he coasted home in 11th place. “Very surprised,” was how Hill reacted when a nearly assured top-five finish evaporated.

“I mean, with how the season’s been for us and things that have happened, that’s just another thing to add to it,” said Hill, who has now gone 10 consecutive races without a top five. “You know, I don’t want to call it luck or anything like that, but just the way that we execute throughout the day and the things that have happened to us, I don’t know what we’ve got to do to, like, have some solid days and finish where we think we should have finished. But all in all, hats off to everybody – RCR, ECR Engines. We went for it. We at least tried.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — With a last-corner pass in a wounded car, Connor Zilisch preserved his perfect record at Watkins Glen International — at the expense of his best friend.

Running down Jesse Love after pitting with 25 laps left, Zilisch shot past Love’s No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in Turn 7 and won a drag race to the finish line to win Saturday’s Mission 200 at The Glen by 0.262 seconds. 

The victory was Zilisch’s third straight at the 2.45-mile road course in as many starts, and his second in his fifth NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start of the season. It is the 13th win of his O’Reilly Series career. 

Zilisch joins Terry Labonte and Marcos Ambrose as the only drivers to win three consecutive O’Reilly Series races at Watkins Glen.

For the 70th straight race, JR Motorsports put at least one car in the top 10, nine short of RFK Racing’s record (2008-2010). JRM also collected its 11th straight road course victory.

The victory came after Zilisch relentlessly chased down Love, who pitted on Lap 48 of 72 and saved fuel the rest of the way, with Zilisch — after trailing by 18 seconds — chopping significant chunks out of Love’s lead over the final 25 circuits.

With six laps left, however, Zilisch hit the grass as he sped through the bus stop chicane and damaged the undercarriage of his car. Adjusting to the altered feel of his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Zilisch continued his pursuit and closed on his friend.

On the final lap, Zilisch made up significant ground through the bus stop and took advantage when Love ran wide through the final corner.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“That was driving as hard as I could for all 30 of those laps (from a restart on lap 51), just trying to make up that gap,” Zilisch said. “I wasn’t going to move Jesse in the last corner there, but he got in deep, and I was able to get by.” 

“It’s so cool to come back and get my third win at Watkins Glen in a row with JRM. Cool to get it with Rodney (Childers). He’s my third different crew chief here.” 

This was the second significant battle between Zilisch and Love in the last six months. At Phoenix Raceway in November, Love outdueled the heavily favored Zilisch to win the series championship. 

On Saturday, it was Love who was disconsolate. 

“At the end of the day, the glaring piece of it is I had a bad corner,” Love said. “It was definitely a challenging but good experience for me. I’ve never saved fuel on a road course. What a good mental challenge for me.

“All I want to do is beat Connor here (on a road course), right? We’re best friends, and we’ve caused each other a lot of pain. I didn’t execute when I needed to. I think the reason I’m so quiet is I’m just embarrassed, right? As a driver, you just can’t make those mistakes.” 

As a measure of the friendship between the two drivers, the first person to Love’s car after the race was Zilisch’s mother, who gave Love a consoling hug.

Taylor Gray and Ross Chastain finished third and fourth, respectively, both on fuel-saving strategy. Brandon Jones was fifth, followed by rookie Brent Crews, Parker Retzlaff, Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Green and Justin Allgaier, whose series lead over second place Sheldon Creed (29th Saturday) grew to 155 points. 

Van Gisbergen was in the mix for the win before contact between his car and Zilisch’s on pit road tore the left front fender on Zilisch’s No. 9 JRM Chevrolet. Van Gisbergen had to pit again for repairs, his chance at a win all but evaporated. 

Crews led a race-high 32 laps, followed by Zilisch with 20 and Love with 18.

After the victory, Zilisch climbed from his car with utmost care, determined not to repeat the fall from the window ledge that cost him a broken collarbone last year.

“It really means a lot to get another one here and get out of the car safely and get onto the ground without killing myself,” Zilisch quipped.

Zilisch and van Gisbergen will race as Trackhouse Racing teammates in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen, with the New Zealander on the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series event (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Connor Zilisch as the winner.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Twenty-nine years after his first World of Outlaws Sprint Car start — with a distinguished NASCAR career in between — Kasey Kahne claimed his first victory as a driver in Friday night’s Outlaws event at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Kahne has had enormous success as a World of Outlaws team owner, winning five series championships with driver Brad Sweet and one with Daryn Pittman. A victory of his own, however, continued to elude him — until Friday night.

Substituting for injured Anthony Macri, Kahne held off Sheldon Haudenschild in the closing laps to seal the win on the legendary half-mile dirt track. Kahne’s first start in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series came at Grays Harbor Raceway in his home state of Washington on Aug. 22, 1997.

RELATED: Kasey Kahne through the years

“This is crazy,” Kahne said in Victory Lane. “I couldn’t believe this would happen this weekend. Two weeks ago, I was still building my own cars to get prepared to hopefully race them later this year. Nick Macri and their whole family…

“Man, this whole Macri Motorsports team. (Crew chief) Joe Mooney, he’s exceptional on the wrenches. He worked at KKR (Kasey Kahne Racing), and he’s done so much more since then with Anthony.”

In a NASCAR Cup Series career that spanned 15 years from 2004 through 2018, Kahne won 18 races, including four Crown Jewel events — the Coca-Cola 600 three times (2006,2008 and 2012) and the Brickyard 400 (2017).

His high-water mark came in 2006 when he won six times with Ray Evernham’s fledgling Dodge team. Kahne also won races with Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports, Red Bull Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.

Two-time NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson, co-founder of the High Limit Racing sprint car series, was delighted to learn of Kahne’s victory.

“Yeah, that was awesome,” Larson said. “I was flying here, so I didn’t get to watch the race live, but I’d gotten texts from multiple people when he won and landed in time to watch his interview and just see how excited everybody was for him… the fans, himself, the team.

“Kasey Kahne’s put a lot into the sport of sprint car racing. He’s achieved everything you can achieve as an owner, so to conquer something that he’s been trying to get for a long time and been somewhat close, was cool. He was fast at Lincoln (Speedway in Abbottstown, Pennsylvania) the other night, and then really good last night, so that was awesome.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — When Australian Marcos Ambrose arrived on the NASCAR scene in 2006, he quickly established his superiority on road courses.

Ambrose won four NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races at Watkins Glen International, including three in succession from 2008 through 2010. Driving for Richard Petty Motorsports, Ambrose won two NASCAR Cup Series races at The Glen (2011 and 2012).

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos

As invariably happens, however, Ambrose forced the rest of the Cup Series field to improve on performance, and the gap between Ambrose and his fellow competitors narrowed considerably.

After Ambrose’s departure, Chase Elliott held sway for four years, winning seven times on road courses from 2018 through 2021, including twice at Watkins Glen.

The arrival of New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen has raised the bar even higher. SVG won his first Cup Series start on the Chicago Street Course in 2023. Last year, he won five of the six road course races on the schedule.

Elliott believes the gap between SVG and the rest of the Cup field will narrow once again.

“Yeah, I’m not sure that I have a really good overhead view of what that looks like,” Elliott said. “I’m obviously very zoned in to just my perspective of it, and I certainly feel like we — and myself in particular — have a lot of work to do to get to the performance that those guys have had. I think it’s there. I think we’re capable of doing that. I have no doubt, to your point, I do think he and his performance and the job that he and his team have done are going to make the rest of the field better. I think that’s just how it works.

“So, how far behind some are or aren’t or have closed that gap or not, I’m not sure. I think for me, I still have a lot of room and work to go. But yeah, I think it’s totally doable. I think there is no question it will make everybody better, and I hope that we’re among those that improve and can at least catch up at some point in time.”

MORE: Active road-course winners | Memorable Watkins Glen moments

Elliott’s first Cup victory came at The Glen in 2018, but the 2020 series champion doesn’t have much time for nostalgia as he attempts to win his third race of the season in Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I’m not coming up here to reminisce,” Elliott said. “I’m coming up here to do a job. It certainly is a special place, but I also want to add to the success that we’ve had here. We have another opportunity to do it again this weekend.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Carson Hocevar traded his driver’s suit for a tux and tails for an appearance at the Met Gala in New York on Monday night.

Hocevar, 23, gained instant notoriety for a memorable post-race celebration after his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway on April 26. Hocevar drove his car while sitting on the window ledge, waving to fans in the grandstands.

“It was fun,” Hocevar said of his trip to New York. “It’s a different world. I got to make my mom proud, I guess. She enjoyed that. Her two favorite channels are E! and Hallmark, so the only thing next I can do to make her proud and excited is get on the Hallmark Christmas Special.”

PHOTOS: Full gallery of Hocevar’s Met Gala look

Apparently, Hocevar’s fame was more far-reaching than he knew.

“They called NASCAR,” he said. “They just saw Talladega and called NASCAR, and NASCAR wasn’t really sure what to do or how that all worked, but they asked me if I wanted to go.

“I got to meet a lot of cool people, people I didn’t think I would meet,” he added without giving specifics. “It was a totally different change of pace, without worrying about paint schemes and race suits.”

MORE: How Hocevar celebrated first win at Chili’s

Posted on by Dustin Albino

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — The NASCAR Cup Series had never tackled the historic 2.45-mile twist and turns of Watkins Glen International before the month of August … until this weekend. With the race pushed up some 90 days, it’s led to a host of unanswered questions.

The ambient temperature in New York’s Finger Lakes region hit the 90-degree barrier on race day last August, one of the warmest races in track history despite the sun blistering the area during the summer months. The projected high on Mother’s Day is a crisp 63 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

MORE: Starting lineup | Watkins Glen photos

Naturally, that will lead to a drastic track-temperature swing come the green flag of Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Goodyear is returning the same road-course tire that debuted last year, creating more tire wear throughout the course of a run and throwing teams for a loop with ill-handling cars in practice.

“We had higher track temps, like 120 degrees throughout the (August) race, which was one of the hotter ones we’ve had in a while, which I feel like led to some of the [tire] falloff,” Scott Graves, crew chief for Chris Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Racing Ford and native to nearby Union Springs, New York, an hour northeast of Watkins Glen, told NASCAR.com. “If it’s dry and we’re around 60 degrees, partly cloudy — we’re going to see cooler temps. The big question we have is how much that affects the falloff. Does it look more like traditional Watkins Glen, where it’s lower falloff?

“The tire is designed to have some falloff to it, but these temperatures might bring some of that back to us a little bit.”

Tire falloff showed up in spades during Saturday’s practice session, with multiple drivers out of control while soaring through the esses. A dust of marbles was trailed around the course after practice, with the track crew having to bring out the sweepers before qualifying began.

Connor Zilisch drives at Watkins Glen.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Despite Watkins Glen normally being a high-speed road course in the warmth, the cooler temperature has brought out even more pace. Another curveball could be the implementation of the 750-horsepower package, which made its road-course debut at Circuit of The Americas in early March.

“I would imagine with the cool temperatures, the pace being faster, it will be even harder to pass than it normally is here from the additional grip of the lower temperatures,” Randall Burnett, crew chief for Connor Zilisch’s No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, told NASCAR.com. “I think you will get a little more tire wear and tire slip, especially in the rears with the additional horsepower. The pace should be faster, so you’re going to wear the tires more, in general.

“I think you will see a little more falloff. I don’t think it will be dramatic, but I think it will be more than the past.”

Add in that the race distance was extended by 10 laps this year, and there could be an impact on in-race strategy. Teams still have the option of splitting their race into a two- or three-stop event. But teams that flip the first stage, which ends at Lap 20, shouldn’t be able to stretch their fuel mileage until the midway point of the final stage, like years prior.

“One of the strategies, if you were doing two stops, you could pit before the end of Stage 1 and not again until the middle of Stage 3 when you got to the fuel window — it eliminates that version of it,” Graves said. “If you are looking at a two-stop, it changes that up. If you are looking at a three-stop, it doesn’t change if you are going to do before the stage break kind of thing and doesn’t change that up a whole lot. It does make it a little different if you are trying to play some of those long-shot moves.”

MORE: Paint Scheme Preview

Burnett added: “You are not going to be able to short the first stage and make it to the end on one more stop. With the stage points meaning so much now and the points not having to win to be locked in [the postseason] anymore, I think some guys could [go for] stage points, especially the guys that don’t feel like they might have a shot at winning. Those guys might try to risk that and get stage points.”

And even while Graves, who moved away from New York in the mid-1980s, is accustomed to the damp Empire State spring conditions, he doesn’t believe that gives him a leg up on the competition. Instead, he’s going to rely on Buescher’s road-course prowess, as he leads the league with an average finish of 9.67 on road courses in the Next Gen era with drivers that have made at least 14 starts. Meanwhile, Zilisch is highly regarded as one of the best NASCAR road-course competitors, even though he’s a rookie.

Chris Buescher and Connor Zilisch at Watkins Glen.
Getty Images
Posted on by Zack Albert

Track: Watkins Glen International
Location: Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Track length: 2.45 miles
When: 3 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: FS1, FOX One, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 100 laps | 245 miles
Stages: 20 | 50 | 100
Sunday’s starting lineup | Cup Series pit stall assignments

SVG a constant in a season of change at The Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – This winding road circuit has hugged these hills for 70 years now, but even a venerable, veteran track can take on something new.

The NASCAR Cup Series’ second road-course race this season will feature a handful of novel concepts in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the 2026 campaign churns toward the halfway mark of the regular season. Track limits will have some new, barrier-backed reinforcement in a pair of key areas, the weather will be cooler for a one-off springtime date and the race will be the longest – by 10 extra laps – in NASCAR’s rich history here.

MORE: Weekend schedule, TV info | At-track photos

If there’s a constant among all the Watkins Glen twists, it’s the looming, dominant presence of Shane van Gisbergen. The defending race winner enters as a heavy favorite, and his road-racing expertise will set the bar that the rest of the Cup Series field aspires to clear.

SVG topped Saturday’s practice in the consecutive 5-lap, 10-lap and 15-lap average categories, suggesting his long-run speed will be formidable. Between practice and qualifying, van Gisbergen fretted over how rough his car was driving, suggesting just how much more impressive he might be if his No. 97 Chevrolet got dialed in. Properly tuned a session later, he landed the pole, and Trackhouse Racing teammates Connor Zilisch and Ross Chastain both joined him among the top five.

“Obviously, SVG is coming into the NASCAR world and has instantly shown to be an exceptional talent, very specifically as we see on road races, right from the get-go,” said RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, who outdueled van Gisbergen here in 2024. “That’s been a benchmark for the entire garage, and that’s been something that there’s been a handful of race tracks, and Watkins Glen is one that I feel like everybody’s run here so much through the years that we’re all closer here, but, man, we went to new race tracks and we realized we’ve got some work to do.”

The whole field will face an unavoidable challenge in Sunday’s 100-lap showdown, with new tire-pack barriers establishing track limits in two crucial spots – the exits of Turns 1 and 5. In past years, those areas outside the racing groove have been either grass, gravel traps, or most recently, pavement, allowing cars to sweep wide and sometimes creating a treacherous funnel effect when drivers try to get back in line.

The barriers have made those areas narrower but safer, but also a little less forgiving when the racing room tightens up.

“Only Turn 1, I find different,” van Gisbergen said after qualifying. “You really have to brake a bit earlier and harder to stop the corner, and then you’ve got no margin for error. Like you’re trying to stay relatively tight last year, but you could blow the corner if you needed to and still make time. So yeah, it has changed how accurate you need to be at Turn 1. (In Friday’s Truck Series race) in the restarts, I really found how much tighter of a corner it was and how much you don’t want to be on the outside, I guess, but sometimes you can’t help it. So yeah, it’s a tough corner. The (Turn 5) carousel is not really different, I don’t think.”

NASCAR competition officials also made adjustments Saturday morning to the restart zone, which was moved to the short chute before Turn 7 for last year’s race. The zone remains in the same place, but officials shifted the tire-pack barriers to make the markings along the retaining walls more visible. The move came in response to complaints from a handful of drivers and two key restart-violation penalties in Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series race.

In the details …

Stage points can help make or break a driver’s championship chances. Opportunities to pile on points during early portions of the race can help build a cushion for drivers who also finish well when the checkered flag waves. But road courses present a more difficult choice: pit before the stage end, forfeiting those points for track position? Or stay out, collect stage points and pit under yellow, giving up track position and necessitating a fight back through traffic?

Here are the 10 drivers who have collected the most stage points this season, including the Daytona Duels, before Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen:

NameStage PointsStandings
Kyle Larson918th
Denny Hamlin912nd
Ryan Blaney874th
Tyler Reddick871st
Christopher Bell8313th
Bubba Wallace7111th
Ty Gibbs667th
Chris Buescher625th
Chase Elliott613rd
William Byron5710th

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Watkins Glen hub: Key information, pit-stall assignments, results | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Paint schemes set to dazzle in the Finger Lakes | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Why Preece was penalized and why Busch wasn’t after Texas | Listen now
• Elliott’s greatest strength: Wins are nice, but No. 9’s consistency rises above | Read more
• Power Rankings: Cup Series’ top 20 drivers after Texas | This week’s ranks
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Watkins Glen | Watch now

Contributing: Zach Sturniolo

Posted on by Staff Report

Watkins Glen International has seen an array of winners from road-course ringers to championship contenders, and Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is expected to be no different.

Chevrolet has captured six of the last seven checkered flags at the New York circuit, with Shane van Gisbergen the most recent with a dominant performance last summer in a stretch that saw him win five of the six road courses in 2025.

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While van Gisbergen and Tyler Reddick will be among the favorites on Sunday, there are a handful of other drivers to keep tabs on. See who Racing Insights projects to win at Watkins Glen with a full rundown of predicted results for the 100-lap Mother’s Day showdown in the Finger Lakes.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

CHRIS BUESCHER: The Prosper, Texas, native is on a roll right now with consecutive top-five runs for the first time since June 2024. Now fifth in points, Buescher will almost certainly be in the mix for his first victory since 2024, when he defeated van Gisbergen on the final lap at Watkins Glen. The No. 17 RFK Racing driver is the only wheelman to finish inside the top 10 in all four Gen 7 Watkins Glen events, and his 9.67 average finish on road courses since 2022 is best among all drivers with 14-plus starts.

CONNOR ZILISCH: The young phenom is in the midst of a triple-duty weekend in the Southern Tier. The No. 88 Trackhouse Racing driver is already a three-time NASCAR winner at Watkins Glen with an ARCA Menards Series victory and back-to-back triumphs in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2024 and 2025. While he only mustered a 14th-place result at Circuit of The Americas back in March, Zilisch showed his talent during that race, storming from the back of the pack twice to recover for a decent result.

MICHAEL MCDOWELL: 2026 has been a disappointing season so far for the longtime Cup veteran. He sits 23rd in Cup points while both of his Spire Motorsports teammates are within the top 16 for provisional Chase spots. But a turnaround is on tap if McDowell can continue performing well on road courses. He owns four top fives in the last six road-course races, including a fifth-place run at COTA.

MORE: At-track photos

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR GO BOWLING AT THE GLEN (3 p.m. ET, FS1)

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
197Shane van Gisbergen
220Christopher Bell
345Tyler Reddick
417Chris Buescher
55Kyle Larson
624William Byron
712Ryan Blaney
871Michael McDowell
919Chase Briscoe
109Chase Elliott
1154Ty Gibbs
1216AJ Allmendinger
131Ross Chastain
1477Carson Hocevar
1522Joey Logano
168Kyle Busch
1760Ryan Preece
182Austin Cindric
1911Denny Hamlin
207Daniel Suárez
2123Bubba Wallace
2248Alex Bowman
236Brad Keselowski
2438Zane Smith
2534Todd Gilliland
2688Connor Zilisch
273Austin Dillon
2847Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2942John Hunter Nemechek
3041Cole Custer
3135Riley Herbst
324Noah Gragson
3310Ty Dillon
3443Erik Jones
3521Josh Berry
3651Cody Ware
3766Josh Bilicki
3878Katherine Legge