Pit stall assignments are out for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen Interational, and Coors Light Pole Award winner AJ Allmendinger got first pick of where he will pit.
Allmendinger chose pit stall 1, which is the first pit stall off pit road.
Unlike the rest of the tracks on the Sprint Cup Series circuit, drivers must pit on the right side due to the road course layout.
Follow coverage of the Cheez-It 355 on Sunday, Aug. 9 at 2 p.m. ET on NBCSN/Live Extra, MRN, SiriusXM.
RELATED: Full qualifying results
Joey Logano won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International on Saturday.
The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford set the pace with a speed of 124.308 mph (a new track record) in the final round of qualifying. His teammate Brad Keselowski will start second after posting a speed of 123.607 mph. Chase Elliott , Kyle Larson and series points leader Chris Buescher round out the top five.
The group qualifying procedure for a road course includes two rounds, the first being 25 minutes. The 12 fastest cars from the opening session advanced to the 10-minute final round.
Logano paced the first session as well, followed by Keselowski. Ty Dillon was 14th in the first session before his final run vaulted him up to sixth, advancing the driver of the No. 3 Chevrolet into the final round and knocking Brendan Gaughan out. Dillon will start sixth.
Morgan Shepherd did not qualify for the race in the No. 89 Chevrolet but will drive the No. 40 Toyota in the race.
The Zippo 200 is scheduled for later today at 3 p.m. ET (NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).
RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Penalty? So what?
Polesitter Joey Logano shook off a pit road infraction that sent him to the back of the field early in Saturday’s Zippo 200 at The Glen.
But by the end of the NASCAR XFINITY Series race, Logano’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford was comfortably at the front of the field. The only other car that was close was the No. 22 of teammate Brad Keselowski, who recovered from a pit road speeding penalty to finish second.
“Everything went as planned,” said Logano, who was penalized for dragging a fuel can from his pit stall after a green-flag stop on Lap 20 of 82. “It was fun to have a car that was that fast, out there racing these guys and racing your teammate there for the win. It shows a lot about our organization.”
Logano was 22nd when he restarted on Lap 27 after NASCAR threw the second caution of the race to retrieve the errant fuel can. With the help of two quick cautions, he drove quickly to the front, and on Lap 49, Logano passed Keselowski for the lead, drag-racing his teammate from the exit of Turn 7 to the start/finish line and clearing him through Turn 1.
“I knew my car was fast enough to get there,” Logano said of the quick run to the front. “I didn’t know if I was going to run them all down in that one run like that. I didn’t think that would happen, but it showed a lot of strength in our race car.”
It was the first road course victory for Logano in any of NASCAR’s top series.
“I’ve been so close to winning with the 22 team on the (Sprint) Cup side and this XFINITY team has been close to winning here lately, so it’s nice to get Team Penske back in Victory Lane,” said Logano, who had Sprint Cup crew chief Todd Gordon calling the race and his Sprint Cup crew servicing the car on pit road to gain experience for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at The Glen (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN), the 22nd race on the Cup schedule.
If Logano and Keselowski dominated at the front of the field, leading 39 and 40 laps, respectively, behind them was chaos.
XFINITY Series title contender Regan Smith suffered the brunt of the damage, getting the short end of run-ins with both Ty Dillon and Brendan Gaughan. Smith came home 20th and lost 18 points to XFINITY Series leader Chris Buescher, who finished third.
After stopping by Gaughan’s car for a few words post-race, Smith headed for Dillon. The argument started to get physical, before NASCAR officials and crew members separated the drivers.
Dillon admitted making two mistakes during the race, the first of which spun Smith’s JR Motorsports Chevrolet after a restart on Lap 40. What Dillon didn’t countenance was a threat from Smith.
“He said he was going to wreck me — we’ll see,” Dillon said. “I took the blame for it, but he came down here picking a fight. That’s a different game.”
After the altercation, Smith repeated the promise to reporters.
“I got dumped in Turn 1,” Smith said. “It was pretty plain and simple. I don’t think I’m the only one he dumped today … I guarantee you, I might have lost the championship today, but he did, too. There’s no chance that 3 car wins the championship, and I’m going to make sure of it.”
Substituting for Kyle Busch, who opted not to run the race in favor of staying fresh for Sunday’s Cup race, road course ace Boris Said finished fourth, followed by Dillon and Brian Scott.
Buescher extended his series lead to 24 points over Dillon and seventh-place finisher Chase Elliott. Smith is fourth in the standings, now 57 points behind Buescher.
Information provided by NASCAR Wire Service
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – With four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories since returning from an 11-race injury absence, Kyle Busch will be eligible for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup as soon as he cracks the top 30 in the series standings.
That could come as early as Sunday at Watkins Glen International, if Busch makes up a 13-point deficit to 30th-place David Gilliland in the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN).
Though Busch is a prolific winner at NASCAR’s top level, he doesn’t begrudge those who qualify for the Chase with a single victory, as both Aric Almirola (Daytona) and AJ Allmendinger (Watkins Glen) did last year.
In fact, Busch fully supports the win-and-you’re-in aspect of the playoff eligibility rules.
“I think winning in this sport is very, very tough and you see it every single year,” Busch said. “I think the average is only between 12 and 14 (different) winners in a season, and that’s been that way for 15 years or 20 years or whatever it’s been. It’s not all that easy to win these races, and sometimes you look at teams — maybe last year you look at Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger. They won races to get themselves into the Chase, but were their teams really ready for the Chase?
“That’s not for any of us to decide. It’s for them to be able to compete and have that opportunity to compete for the championship… There’s opportunity for teams like that, and I think this sport needs that. If AJ were to win again this weekend, I think it would be perfect for him to have the opportunity to race in the Chase and same for anybody else like a Tony Stewart. If he were to win this weekend, I think it would be a true revival story of his season and maybe of the rest of his career.”
It’s also worth noting that, if there’s a repeat winner on Sunday at Watkins Glen, all 10 races winners this season other than Busch will be locked into the Chase. Those with multiple wins — Jimmie Johnson , Kevin Harvick , Dale Earnhardt Jr. , Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth — lready have earned Chase berths.
RELATED: See Sunday’s full lineup
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — AJ Allmendinger would like nothing better than a good, strong case of déjà vu.
“Hopefully, we’re reliving last year,” Allmendinger said after putting his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Chevrolet on the pole for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at The Glen (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).
Last year the road-course ace barged into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup by winning at Watkins Glen from the sixth starting position.
On Saturday at the 2.45-mile road course, Allmendinger posted the only sub-69-second lap (1:08.993) to win the pole at 127.839 mph, edging Martin Truex Jr. (127.569 mph) for the top starting spot in the 22nd NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season.
Tony Stewart (127.481 mph) qualified third, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick (127.416 mph) and four-time Watkins Glen winner Jeff Gordon (127.181 mph), who is making his final start at the New York road course as a full-time Sprint Cup driver.
The Coors Light Pole Award was the fourth of Allmendinger’s career, his first at Watkins Glen and his second of the season — and it marked a dramatic turnaround from a disappointing final practice on Friday afternoon, when Allmendinger was 28th on the speed chart.
“I didn’t do a good job (on Friday),” Allmendinger said. “They saved me. They gave me a good race car… I don’t know if I’ll sleep any better tonight, but I’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
As he tries for a repeat performance, Allmendinger will have a familiar chassis under him.
“It’s the same car we ran last year, the same car we ran at Sonoma,” said Allmendinger, who also won the pole for the West Coast road course race in June. “But they put a lot more work into it over the winter to make sure it was lighter, we got the right tools that we needed into the car to make it faster.”
Clearly, there’s pressure on Allmendinger to qualify for the Chase, but most of it is self-generated.
“There isn’t any more pressure than I put on myself,” he said. “These guys (his team) deserve it. I want to lift them on my shoulders and carry them to Victory Lane. Last year was special and it just makes you want to do it more and more.
“But the outside, there ain’t nothing there (in terms of pressure). It’s all inside here that I put the pressure on myself, and I’m going to go try to make it happen. These guys deserve it.”
Kyle Larson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon will start from positions six through 10 on the grid.
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — No big deal, says Bubba Wallace. Not an issue, according to teammate Chris Buescher.
Move along folks, nothing to see here. There may or may not be some lingering ill feelings but no one’s talking payback.
Last week’s late-race contact between the two Roush Fenway Racing drivers has been talked out and put away, both said Friday at Watkins Glen International, site of Saturday’s Zippo 200 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR).
Buescher, the series points leader for the past 10 weeks, finished outside the top 10 for the fifth straight race after contact between he and Wallace sent the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway into overtime last Saturday night.
Wallace, sixth in the points standings, finished 11th.
“We’ve been able to show up competitively to a lot of these race tracks and our teammates have done the same thing,” the 22-year-old Buescher said Friday morning at WGI. “We’ve been racing around each other a lot and it’s tough, but we’ve got it handled and we’re looking forward to getting into this stretch (of races).
“We have it to the point where we’re going to be able to race around each other and not have to worry about anything.”
Wallace, 21, agreed. Any ill feelings or issues from last week’s finish, he said, have been dealt with and “the focus is on this weekend’s race.”
Saturday night’s incident was the second of the season for the RFR teammates. At Dover earlier this year, a similar late-race get-together left Wallace with a flat tire and Buescher celebrating in Victory Lane.
A five-time winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Wallace is still chasing his first XFINITY Series victory. Buescher has three career wins in XFINITY Series competition.
“I love seeing that (conflict). I don’t know where it stands this week,” JR Motorsports driver Regan Smith said Friday when asked about on-track issues among teammates.
“It’s always difficult to race a teammate. We did it last year with myself and Chase (Elliott) running 1-2 for the majority of the season. You want to beat them for pride within your own shop but then you also know the picture, to gain points. … It doesn’t make it any easier. We’re all competitors and … selfish individuals.”
But, he added, “If it takes one ounce of focus away from what they’re doing, then it’s helping us out and I’m fine with that.”
Smith is fourth in points. Elliott, the defending series champion, is second.
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — It’s been a sweet reunion for AJ Allmendinger and the world famous Watkins Glen International, site of the Californian’s first and only NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win last summer.
“It was pretty cool driving in the race track yesterday when we got here and just kind of remembering the last time I was driving out of the race track,” Allmendinger said. “The amount of joy that I had and just all the feelings and emotions that I had gone through — those are memories that no matter what happens the rest of my life, I will always have.”
Allmendinger would really like to make more memories this weekend. The former open-wheel star knows very well it is his best chance to earn a second consecutive berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
His No. 47 Kroger/Bush’s Beans Chevy was second fastest — behind Clint Bowyer — in Friday’s opening practice around the windy and scenic 2.454-mile course in upstate New York. Four-time race winner Jeff Gordon topped the second practice, just faster than Kyle Larson. All four drivers are still looking for their first win of the year.
RELATED: Practice results
Allmendinger’s popular victory at the Glen last year was all the sweeter because it landed him in the 16-driver Chase field. The only single-car team to make the playoffs, Allmendinger may have been considered a long shot to hoist the championship trophy, but at least he had a shot.
One race — this race — made all the difference.
“I feel like if we go out there and we perform at our best and we make all the right decisions, we will legitimately have a shot to win again,” Allmendinger said. “That is all you can ask for.”
The reality is Allmendinger isn’t the only road course ace that needs to win to score a Chase berth.
The Glen’s all-time winningest driver Tony Stewart (five victories) is 25th in the points standings and will need a victory to earn a Chase bid.
The track’s all-time lap leader, Gordon (262 laps), as well as former road course winners Bowyer and Kasey Kahne also still need a win to secure an automatic Chase bid. Bowyer and Kahne are a tenuous 15th and 16th in the points standings.
It’s the same situation for Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Jamie McMurray — who has a road course win in the Rolex 24 sports car classic — and Larson as both are also winless with only five races remaining to capitalize on the win-and-you’re-in Chase format.
And then there’s the season four-time race winner Kyle Busch, who sits 13 points out of 30th place in the standings — the threshold for a race winner to earn a position in the 16-driver Chase field. He’s won twice at the Glen (2008, 2013).
Does having so many successful road course drivers needing a victory ratchet up the competition on Sunday? Do they lean on other cars a little harder, block a little more, drive deeper into the corners?
Gordon, a four-time Watkins Glen winner, said Friday, he definitely expects the intensity will increase this weekend. It’s a radically different scenario for him than in 2014 when he had already won twice and was leading the points standings coming into this race.
“That win means so much,” Gordon said Friday. “Of course, it’s important for us if we can’t win this race to have a good solid points day and build that buffer (in the points). Our goal is to win and we feel like it’s a great opportunity.
“There are others that have a similar opportunity, too. This is definitely one of the last sort of “wild cards,” you think of restrictor plate and road course races as being a wild card with a winner you might not necessarily expect.”
Even though he is considered a race favorite, Allmendinger is taking nothing for granted.
“The thing I’ve learned about the Sprint Cup Series is it doesn’t matter whether somebody needs a win or not, if the opportunity is there, he or she is going to go out there to do whatever they can to get the win,” Allmendinger said.
“I kind of laugh because everybody initially said, ‘Oh, Marcus Ambrose isn’t here so this should be easy for you.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not sure if you guys remember but Gordon was leading (last year’s race) when he broke.’ There are a lot of great race car drivers and you can’t just single out one or two of them that are going to be tough.
“It makes it a lot of fun. I know I have to go out there and be on my A-game to have a shot to win this thing.”
During a caution caused by Jimmie Johnson‘s spin on Lap 58, Tony Stewart was stalled on the track and unable to move. This would bring his day to an early end after the car was taken to the garage.
Stewart was heard saying on his radio, “Something broke.”
Stewart had posted his best qualifying run of the season at Watkins Glen, putting the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Chevrolet third on the starting grid.
After getting his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet pushed off the track, “Smoke” headed to the garage with 30 laps left and his day was finished.
Stewart is a five-time Watkins Glen winner and came into the race 25th in the points standings with just two top-10 finishes on the season. He finished the Cheez-It 355 in 43rd place and slipped to 26th place in teh standings, 405 points behind Sprint Cup Series leader Kevin Harvick .
| Order | Car | Driver | Team |
| 1 | 46 | Michael Annett | Switch Hitch Chevrolet |
| 2 | 83 | Matt DiBenedetto # | Burger King/Cosmo Motors Toyota |
| 3 | 13 | Casey Mears | GEICO Chevrolet |
| 4 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford EcoBoost Ford |
| 5 | 55 | David Ragan | Aaron’s Dream Machine Online Version Toyota |
| 6 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Time Warner Cable Chevrolet |
| 7 | 35 | Cole Whitt | Tweaker Energy Shots Ford |
| 8 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Miller Lite/Luke Bryan Ford |
| 9 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | McDonald’s Chevrolet |
| 10 | 51 | Justin Allgaier | Brandt Chevrolet |
| 11 | 20 | Matt Kenseth | Dollar General Toyota |
| 12 | 32 | Boris Said(i) | Genesee Brewing Company Chevrolet |
| 13 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Target Chevrolet |
| 14 | 7 | Alex Bowman | TBR Chevrolet |
| 15 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Lowe’s Chevrolet |
| 16 | 18 | Kyle Busch | M&M Crispy Toyota |
| 17 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Smithfield Ford |
| 18 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Axalta Chevrolet |
| 19 | 26 | Jeb Burton # | Maxim Toyota |
| 20 | 38 | David Gilliland | Love’s Travel Stops Ford |
| 21 | 10 | Danica Patrick | GoDaddy Chevrolet |
| 22 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Cheez-It Ford |
| 23 | 95 | Michael McDowell | K-Love Radio Ford |
| 24 | 62 | TJ Bell(i) | Tuctite Hosters Chevrolet |
| 25 | 98 | Timmy Hill(i) | Premium Motorsports Chevrolet |
| 26 | 23 | JJ Yeley(i) | Dr Pepper Toyota |
| 27 | 47 | AJ Allmendinger | Kroger/Bush’s Beans Chevrolet |
| 28 | 3 | Austin Dillon | DOW Chevrolet |
| 29 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | Maxwell House Toyota |
| 30 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet |
| 31 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet |
| 32 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Haas Automation Chevrolet |
| 33 | 9 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Medallion Bank Ford |
| 34 | 27 | Paul Menard | Libman/Menards Chevrolet |
| 35 | 19 | Carl Edwards | Stanley Toyota |
| 36 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Caterpillar Chevrolet |
| 37 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford |
| 38 | 40 | Landon Cassill(i) | Hillman Automotive & Tire Chevrolet |
| 39 | 34 | Chris Buescher(i) | Bully Hill Vineyards Ford |
| 40 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet |
| 41 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Nationwide Chevrolet |
| 42 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | AdvoCare Ford |
| 43 | 33 | Alex Kennedy # | Dream Factory Chevrolet |
| 44 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | FedEx Ground Toyota |
As you watch NBCSN’s coverage at Watkins Glen this weekend, here’s a visual aid to help with the road course’s layout.
The top map is the full 11-turn layout and its key phrases. The bottom map is the seven-turn configuration that NASCAR uses.
One term you’ll hear on broadcast that isn’t explicitly noted above is the “bus stop” — that’s the dip between Turns 4 and 5, otherwise known as the inner loop.
Other fun facts to keep in mind this weekend: Watkins Glen is 2.45 miles long, and Tony Stewart has the most NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins there with a total of five.
For full coverage of the race, click here.
