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.

RELATED: Starting lineup | Saturday recap

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
Posted on by Reid Spencer

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — The bus stop chicane at Watkins Glen International is designed to slow drivers down.

In Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session, however, it was the section of the 2.45-mile road course where defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen gained light years over the competition, relatively speaking, in securing the pole for Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The New Zealander, celebrating his 37th birthday, navigated the seven-turn circuit in 71.165 seconds (123.937 mph) on the first of two qualifying laps to beat Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell (123.488 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.259 seconds.

MORE: Starting lineup | At-track photos

“I did nail it on my first lap,” van Gisbergen said of the bus stop at the end of the long backstretch, where he gained more than two tenths of a second on the field. “The first half of the lap was pretty average, I thought.

“My second lap, I had less tire grip, but it was a better lap, so I think I was ahead until the bus stop, and then I mucked it up. My first lap was really good there — probably got it right, and maybe the others got it wrong. But generally, that is a really strong point for me.”

Team Penske’s Austin Cindric (123.452 mph) claimed the third starting spot, followed by van Gisbergen’s teammates at Trackhouse Racing, Ross Chastain (123.445 mph) and Connor Zilisch (123.386 mph).

Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, last year’s pole winner, were sixth and seventh, giving Team Penske three of the top seven starters. The Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs completed the top 10.

Van Gisbergen expects tire wear to play a major role in Sunday’s race, which has been lengthened from 90 to 100 laps, featuring stage lengths of 20, 30 and 50 laps.

“The fall-off was insane,” van Gisbergen said. “I didn’t expect that. The marbles and the fall-off was extreme today. It’s kind of like Bristol when it’s cold. The tires would fall apart. It was very interesting. We fell off four seconds or so.

“Crazy. It’ll be a good race to watch but probably a hard one to manage.”

Series leader Tyler Reddick, a five-time winner this season and the most recent road course winner at Circuit of The Americas, qualified 15th. Chase Elliott, last Sunday’s winner at Texas Motor Speedway, will start 27th on Sunday.

Cindric leads Cup practice at Watkins Glen

Austin Cindric posted the fastest lap in NASCAR Cup Series practice at Watkins Glen International, posting a lap at 122.147 mph in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford on Saturday afternoon.

Carson Hocevar was second-quickest in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet at 122.073 mph, with Ty Gibbs (122.032 mph), Christopher Bell (122.031 mph) and Chris Buescher (121.971 mph) completing the top five in single-lap speeds.

MORE: Practice results, lap averages, more | Weekend schedule: Watkins Glen

Shane van Gisbergen, who dominated this race last August, posted the best times in five-lap, 10-lap and 15-lap averages across Saturday’s practice. Of the 14 drivers who posted runs of 10 or more consecutive laps, SVG’s 10-lap average was a lap time of 73.53 seconds, with Tyler Reddick second, Hocevar third, Ryan Blaney fourth and Cindric fifth.

Van Gisbergen, a five-time road-course winner in 2025, said this week he believes Reddick is the favorite this weekend after Reddick won the series’ most recent road race at Circuit of The Americas in March.

The session began with many teams opting for wet-weather Goodyear tires as rain washed through the Finger Lakes region of New York State early Saturday morning. As teams eventually transitioned back to slicks, two drivers and teams incurred issues: Ross Chastain and his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet cutting a left-rear tire and Chase Briscoe’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota cutting a left-front tire.

Contributing: Staff reports.

Posted on by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers will pit this weekend at Watkins Glen International.

NASCAR Cup Series

nascar cup series pit stalls for watkins glen

NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Watkins Glen weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on FOX

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

watkins glen o'reilly series pit stall assignments

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Mission 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: How to watch O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races on The CW

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

craftsman truck series pit stalls at watkins glen

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Bully Hill Vineyards 176 at Watkins Glen International on Friday (4:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: How to watch NASCAR on FOX

Posted on by Zack Albert

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Ryan Preece offered his perspective Saturday after a midweek penalty for rough driving last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, saying he was eager to explain his side of an incident with Ty Gibbs in the team’s forthcoming appeal.

“Honestly, a bit surprised,” Preece said of his reaction, receiving word by phone as he mowed his yard Tuesday afternoon, “but you know, I’m thankful that NASCAR has an appeals process so that I feel like I can be heard and let that process play itself out.”

Preece’s remarks came Saturday morning in a media availability with RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher at Watkins Glen International, site of Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) for the NASCAR Cup Series.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos

NASCAR officials penalized Preece on Tuesday, two days after an on-track altercation with Gibbs during last Sunday’s Würth 400 presented by Liqui Moly at the Fort Worth track. Gibbs exited the event early after the close-quarters racing with Preece, who blasted his rival over his No. 60 team’s radio for a perceived lack of respect, saying he opted against cutting Gibbs a break as they fought for position in Stage 2.

Competition officials fined Preece $50,000 and docked him 25 points, dropping him one spot to 13th in the Cup Series driver standings. RFK Racing indicated Thursday that the team will appeal the behavioral penalty.

Preece said he hadn’t discussed the incident with Gibbs in the six days since Sunday, saying, “There’s nothing right now until after an appeals process.” Gibbs said Saturday that he wasn’t sure a conversation would be fruitful.

“Obviously, yeah, probably not. I mean, there’s not much to talk about there,” Gibbs said before Saturday’s Cup Series practice. “I mean, yeah, it sucks. We got destroyed there, but obviously, that was last week, and we’ll let NASCAR figure that out. But yeah, we have a wrecked race car and lost a lot of points for going three-wide bottom and not making any contact. So I think it’s pretty … yeah, I don’t know, but we’ll just keep going this weekend.”

Competition officials also noted this week that Preece’s candor in vowing retribution over his team communications had factored into the decision to penalize him. When asked Saturday if the penalty might give him pause while expressing himself on the in-car radio, Preece said he didn’t plan on altering his approach.

MORE: Why NASCAR penalized Preece

“You know, at the beginning of the season, we talked about being ourselves,” Preece said. “So I’m not going to change being myself, but what I can say is I’m excited for the appeals process, and I look forward to going through that.”

Verbalizing his intent, Gibbs said, is where Preece’s retaliation crossed a line for NASCAR to take action.

“I haven’t looked that much into that,” Gibbs said, “but obviously, if you say you’re gonna wreck somebody and you do it, that’s obviously an issue NASCAR’s said in the past. So I think there’s been plenty of situations … not plenty, but a couple where they’ve penalized people for that, so I mean, that was just another situation like that.”

RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski echoed some of Preece’s remarks, welcoming the platform that the appeals procedures provide. He added that the guidelines of what can and can’t be said or done in on-track altercations are difficult to define, factors that make officiating much more demanding.

“The line’s always moving, right?” Keselowski said. “I say that in somewhat jest because, man, I’ve done a lot of jobs in the sport. The one job I haven’t done, and I don’t think I probably ever will, is be a NASCAR official. Watch me eat those words, but that said, man, that’s a tough job. You know, I think you see some sports that have race stewards. I would like to see NASCAR have race stewards. I think it would probably make it easier on them when calls like that are so difficult, and I think you saw a difficult call (Friday) in the truck race with the restart zones, and man, those are really tough calls, and I’m glad I don’t have to make them. But I respect their position, respect how they’re trying to do what they think is best for the sport, that’s for sure.”

Posted on by Dustin Albino

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – The NASCAR world got the first glimpse of a likely pairing that will be competing at the front of the field for years to come during Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series race at Watkins Glen International.

Connor Zilisch and Brent Crews – close allies away from competition – combined to lead 47 of the 73 laps in the Bully Hill Vineyards 176, with Zilisch taking the checkered flag in second while Crews came home seventh. The two upstarts traded paint on multiple occasions, the first coming at the start of Stage 2 and dropping Crews’ No. 1 Tricon Garage truck from the lead.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Four newly implemented tire-pack barriers – ranging from 11 feet off the course to a mere six feet with the esses approaching on the exit of Turn 1 – had thrown Zilisch for a loop.

“Off of [Turn] 1, it was my fault,” Zilisch admitted. “I didn’t mean to run up the track and get into [Crews] like that. It’s hard when the track is that much tighter, you don’t realize where you are.”

The two drivers banged fenders again on another restart at Lap 50. Crews was on the wrong side of that skirmish yet again, dropping in the running order. He even radioed to the No. 1 Tricon bunch that Zilisch was “a weapon.”

“I don’t think anybody was more guilty than the other, but I don’t know,” Crews said. “I haven’t talked to [Zilisch] yet. I don’t know if he’ll talk to me or not, but definitely felt like he probably ran me harder than he needed to, especially with that many laps left, but we both have nothing to lose at the same time.

“I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose, but when you’re racing hard up there, stuff happens.”

Crews didn’t forget the earlier contact when the field lined up for the penultimate restart. He bumped Zilisch entering the Turn 1 brake zone, costing the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet the race lead.

Zilisch said he plans to connect with Crews, as the duo will battle again in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race.

Zilisch said: “We race hard. I will go talk to him about it.”

In a caution-filled 15 laps, Zilisch traded the lead back and forth with Ross Chastain, Gio Ruggiero and Kaden Honeycutt. Ultimately, it was Honeycutt who prevailed, shotgunning a beer on the frontstretch, scoring his first triumph in his 67th series start.

Both Zilisch and Crews were among those ping-ponged around in a series of late restarts, which pushed the event to overtime. Zilisch said he opted against using rougher tactics to steal a win away.

“Anybody could have chosen the inside and done that, but I didn’t want to be that guy,” Zilisch added. “I wanted to race without having to move a guy for the win. I was hoping Kaden would do that; I probably should have realized that he was going for his first win. It’s all good. We learned, we moved on and go get them the rest of the weekend.”

Brent Crews' No. 1 Toyota races alongside the No. 71 Chevy of Connor Zilisch after a restart at Watkins Glen International
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Posted on by Reid Spencer

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.—A week after chastising himself at Texas for repeated failure to win NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races, Kaden Honeycutt pulled off his first career victory over the two drivers who have dominated NASCAR road courses over the past two years.

Honeycutt grabbed the lead from Connor Zilisch through a tight Turn 1 on the first lap of overtime and pulled away for his first victory in the series in Friday’s Bully Hill Vineyards 176 at The Glen.

A few hours earlier, Honeycutt had won the ARCA Menards Series race on the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International circuit. With the Truck Series win, he became the second driver to win both an ARCA race and Truck Series event on the same day, joining Sam Mayer (2020 at Bristol) in that distinction.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“It’s just amazing,” said Honeycutt, who got to the finish line 0.902 second ahead of Zilisch. “I can’t believe I just won on a road course. It’s just unbelievable.” 

Honeycutt proceeded to shotgun a beer beneath the flag stand, reveling in the liquid pouring across his face.

The victory was no easy accomplishment for the driver of the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota, which went to Victory Lane last year at The Glen with Corey Heim behind the wheel. 

Honeycutt drew a penalty near the end of the second stage for pitting when pit road was closed and was forced to restart the final 32-lap stage from the rear of the field. A series of cautions and restart violations by both Ross Chastain and Gio Ruggiero, however, helped Honeycutt on his march back to the front. 

Ruggiero’s infraction while leading on Lap 69 put Honeycutt on the front row next to then-leader Zilisch for the overtime restart. Zilisch chose the outside lane for the two-lap shootout but lost the top spot to Honeycutt as they navigated the right-hand first turn. 

“On the restart, I think Zilisch missed a shift a little bit coming off of (Turn) 7, and I was tight to him,” Honeycutt said. “The only option I had… we were three-wide going into (Turn) 1, and I barely got to his right rear and touched him a little bit.

“It was just enough to scoot by him. As soon as I got the lead, I pulled my visor up, and I was full-blown focused after that.”

After the race, Zilisch rued his lane choice for the overtime. 

“It was just an unfortunate way to end that race,” said Zilisch, who was denied his first Truck Series victory in his ninth start. “I chose the top, hoping we could get through there without making contact. I knew that the bottom would be better if that happened, but I didn’t want to be that guy.

“Yeah, I just wish I could go back and re-do it and pick the inside, but we’ve got two more races this weekend (O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Cup Series). I appreciate Spire Motorsports for giving me a really fast truck.” 

Five-time 2025 NASCAR Cup Series road-course winner Shane van Gisbergen finished third, thanks to the New Zealander’s ability to pick off cars during the series of late restarts. 

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Daniel Hemric was fourth and Chandler Smith fifth, followed by Ram Free Agent driver AJ Allmendinger, pole winner Brent Crews, Mini Tyrrell, Brenden Queen and Connor Mosack. The race marked the first time multiple Ram drivers (Allmendinger, Tyrrell and Queen) finished in the top 10 in the brand’s return to NASCAR racing this year.

Honeycutt led only the two overtime laps. Zilisch led a race-high 28 laps and won the second stage. Crews led 17 laps from the start (19 overall) before pitting and handing the stage win to Daniel Hemric.

Honeycutt leaves The Glen with the series lead by 29 points over Smith.

Chastain held the lead over Zilisch for a restart with eight laps left in regulation, but powered his No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet before he reached the restart zone. 

“What?!” exclaimed Chastain over his radio. “You can’t get a penalty when you’re the control car.”

Video, however, showed the car launching early. Sent to the back, Chastain fell victim to a wreck in Turn 5 on Lap 70 and finished 28th. That incident forced overtime.

Carson Hocevar, last week’s Truck Series race winner at Texas, ran in the top 10 for most of the afternoon before checking up on a Lap 62 restart and nosing into the inside frontstretch wall off Allmendinger’s bumper.

“I’m sure AJ didn’t plan on me lifting,” said Hocevar, who will race in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Go Bowling at the Glen on Sunday. “I just enjoyed getting my butt kicked by the teenagers.” 

Hocevar is 23 years old.

The Craftsman Truck Series returns to action Friday, May 15, at Dover Motor Speedway (5 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, confirming Honeycutt as the winner.