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Replacement driver for current Wild Card holder not yet determined for Watkins Glen

Related: Full Stewart coverage | Drivers react | Helton, Jarrett make mention

Tony Stewart broke both bones in his lower right leg Monday night after another crash in a sprint car.

Stewart-Haas Racing confirmed early Tuesday morning that the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion broke the tibia and fibula in his right leg in a crash at Southern Iowa Speedway, a half-mile dirt oval in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Stewart was transported to an area hospital after the accident, and immediately underwent surgery.

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According to Stewart-Haas Racing, a replacement driver for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen International has not yet been determined. Stewart is 11th in the standings, and with one victory this season, leads the race for the first Wild Card in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Stewart’s No. 14 team has canceled a planned test for Tuesday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Another update on Stewart’s condition is expected Tuesday afternoon.

The Des Moines Register reported that Stewart was leading the Front Row Challenge winged sprint car event with five laps remaining when another car spun and collected the top three drivers. The newspaper added that Stewart was alert and talking with medics after he was placed on a stretcher and transported from the track via ambulance.

Monday night’s accident was the latest in a string of spills Stewart has taken in sprint cars in recent weeks. On July 16, Stewart was involved in a 15-car pileup at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Motorsports Park that sent a 19-year-old female driver to the hospital. Last Monday night at Ohsweken Speedway in Ontario, Canada, Stewart was racing for the lead when his vehicle flipped five times.

Although former NASCAR driver Jason Leffler was killed earlier this year in a sprint-car crash in New Jersey, Stewart maintains close ties to his short-track roots by scheduling roughly 70 sprint car events per year. Friday at Pocono Raceway, Stewart brushed off the Ohsweken accident as routine.

“You guys (in the media) need to watch more sprint car videos and stuff. It’s starting to get annoying this week about that. That was just an average sprint car wreck. When they wreck, they get upside down like that. That was not a big deal,” he said. “… I guarantee you, there were 15, 20 guys across the country who flipped just like that this weekend. We’re just fine. If it’s bad, we’ll let you guys know.”

Stewart’s absence at Watkins Glen — a track where he’s won five times — would have a major impact on the Chase picture, opening the door for SHR teammate and Brickyard winner Ryan Newman to potentially move into the second Wild Card spot.

Tony Stewart has started 521 consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races – 10th-most all-time — since his series debut in the 1999 Daytona 500. On June 4, 2006 at Dover International Speedway, Stewart needed a relief driver, and NASCAR’s Iron Man, Ricky Rudd, filled in for him. Rudd has the most consecutive career starts in series history with 788. Jeff Gordon’s 710 starts in a row lead all active drivers and are second only to Rudd all-time. Bobby Labonte’s streak of 704 starts ended in June.

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Waltrip’s team emerges with another steady day at the Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — There are two road courses that host NASCAR races in the Sprint Cup Series: Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International. Unfortunately for Michael Waltrip Racing, both races have passed, and the drivers who make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup will not travel to either venue while competing for the championship.
 
Martin Truex Jr., who drives MWR’s No. 56 Toyota, and Clint Bowyer, the pilot behind the team’s No. 15 Camry, have been consistent on oval tracks, but this season exceled on the series’ road courses. Both drivers finished in the top five at Sonoma earlier in the year, and Bowyer’s sixth-place finish at Watkins Glen International on Sunday was just short of repeating that statistic. Truex was hoping to follow up his Sonoma win with a road course sweep, but instead came home with a third-place finish.

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“Obviously, we wanted to win this race,” Truex said following the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen. “It would have meant a lot to us.”
 
For a team to be so successful on a type of track that makes up so little of the schedule is uncommon. Carl Edwards was the only other driver to repeat a top-five performance at both tracks this year, and his closest teammate, Greg Biffle, finished eighth at Sonoma and 16th at The Glen.
 
Yet MWR seems to have found a winning strategy for their cars’ successes at the road layouts — one with a foundation beginning with the man who many believed would make the trip to Victory Lane on Sunday.
 
"Honestly, when I first came (to Michael Waltrip Racing), Marcos (Ambrose) was there and he really helped elevate that program," said Truex, who started where he finished — in third. "They spent a lot of time testing different things, and road racers kind of have a different mentality when it comes to tuning on the car and the little things that you need to work on. … He definitely really led us in the right direction, without a doubt, as soon as I came there."
 
Bowyer, who started second alongside pole-sitter Ambrose, almost held on for a top-five finish until right turn veteran Juan Pablo Montoya slipped past in the late going. On a track where he says he used to struggle to find speed, holding off a road-course expert for that long shows the power Bowyer had this time around.
 
"That confidence you get leaving Sonoma having those good of runs, you come here and you run better," he said. "I won last year at Sonoma, came here and (ran) fourth. This year, (I) obviously didn’t win but I passed a lot of cars and had a ton of speed and there’s a lot of confidence that goes with that when you’re passing cars and putting ’em behind you. Confidence is a big part of this sport, and certainly holds true when we come back here."
 
Bowyer’s finishes on the road courses have helped him remain a fixture high in the standings, sitting among the top-10 for all but one week. Truex, on the other hand, has needed the road course wins to push him back into contention.
 
His victory at Sonoma moved him up from 13th to 10th and put him in the fight for a Wild Card berth. This week after Watkins Glen, he moved up four spots, back into the top 10 and in position for an automatic Chase berth. Though two of Truex’s best tracks are behind him, he believes his worst are also in the rear-view mirror.
 
"… I felt like if we could just get through those three weeks, those three flat tracks — which we didn’t set the world on fire (at) by any means," Truex said. "We struggled but we struggled to 11th at Indy and 15th or something at Pocono, and even though those were terrible results, they were good for us."
 
None of the remaining tracks spark worry for Truex: Michigan, he says, is one of his better tracks (he finished third there earlier this year), as is Atlanta, where he took fourth place last year. Hopefully, the team’s bad luck is already also behind them.
 
“It seems like this year every time we got ourselves in a comfortable position in points, we had a really bad weekend, out of our control, places like Daytona and engine problems and things that we’ve had throughout the year,” he said.
 
“The points are what they are,” he said. “We’re just going to go racing and try to do what we know how to do.”

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Unwavering support offered to three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion

Related: Full Stewart coverage | Drivers react | Helton, Jarrett make mention

Drivers awoke to news Tuesday morning that Tony Stewart had broken both bones in his right leg in a sprint car crash late Monday night.

"Smoke", who had surgery early Tuesday morning following the wreck at Southern Iowa Speedway, is one of the most respected drivers in the garage, and that was evident as drivers from across the sport offered their thoughts.

Check below for driver reaction, and check back as we update these comments.

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Danica Patrick (@DanicaPatrick): Such a sad situation with tony. He was racing cars he loves. When he’s healed, it will be like he never missed beat! Heal fast big brother!

Ryan Newman (@RyanNewman39): Can’t blame a guy for doing what he loves. Hoping my buddy Tony has a fast recovery.

Clint Bowyer (@ClintBowyer): Hate it for Tony, he does what he loves and has single handedly sold out crowds at short tracks all across country for years. That’s impact

Kevin Harvick (@KevinHarvick): Yesterday was strange, hopefully today is a much better day. Thinking about my buddy Smoke. #notasprintcarfan

Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch): Wishing Tony Stewart a speedy recovery. #GetWellSmoke

Kasey Kahne (@kaseykahne): Thinking about Tony this morning. Heal up quick buddy! Leading A-main when crash happened. All smoke does is go fast #badass

Mark Martin: (@55MarkMartin): I’m really sorry to hear about Tony Stewart’s injury. But thankful it wasn’t worse. #getwellsoonTony

Elliott Sadler (@Elliott_Sadler): Wishing Tony a quick recovery…I hope people don’t 2nd guess him.That dude is a racer. Period.His support of Sprint car racing is unmatched

Juan Pablo Montoya (jpmontoya): heard about tony’s leg this morning. that sucks for him, specially having the glen this weekend. hope he gets better soon.

Martin Truex Jr. (@MartinTruexJr56): Sorry to hear about tony this morning.

Justin Allgaier (@J_Allgaier): Really hate to hear about #Smoke…. Hope for a speedy recovery….Sprint cars this year have been rough, but glad he is going to be ok…

Kenny Wallace (@Kenny_Wallace): We CANNOT go through life saying "If I do this OR that I might get hurt" GET WELL #TonyStewart

Josh Wise (@Josh_Wise): Racing sprint cars my entire life I always understood the risks. You can be sure Tony understood them as well. Praying for speedy recovery.

AJ Allmendinger (@AJDinger): Hoping Smoke recovers quickly. One of the best wheel man there is in the world doing what he loves to do. #muchrespect

J.J. Yeley (@jjyeley1): Just landed in Atlanta to test today and heard about my bud Tony crashing last night at the Front Row Challenge. Speedy recovery bud!

Aric Almirola (@aric_almirola): Just saw the news about Stewart. Man I hope he heals up quick!

Michael Waltrip (@mw55): Tony #smoke That dude loves sprint cars. Hope he’s ok.

Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin): Man I really hope Tony Is ok.

Nelson Piquet Jr. (@NelsonPiquet): Sorry to hear about (Tony Stewart)! Hope he recovers quickly! But a double duty for me this weekend would be a dream come true!

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Aussie a pre-race favorite for another road course triumph

It was a final lap that no one watching will ever forget.
 
It was a two-driver showdown battle for the checkered flag that some said was one of the best in NASCAR history.
 
It was one of the brightest highlights of the 2012 season.
 
And in the end, Marcos Ambrose stood victorious over Brad Keselowski, who would go on to capture his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship at season’s end.
 
Ambrose’s win last year at Watkins Glen was one that will go down in the annals of NASCAR lore as one of the most exciting, but it also gave the Australian driver back-to-back victories at the 2.45-mile road course. This Sunday in the Cheez-it 355 at The Glen (1 p.m. ET, ESPN) he’ll be looking to become only the third driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to post three consecutive wins at the pastoral track nestled in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York.

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Mark Martin first accomplished the three-peat in 1995 after winning the 1993 and 1994 races, as well. Jeff Gordon matched Martin’s record four years later when he won his third straight race at The Glen in 1999.
 
"Obviously, we feel like we are contenders each time we go to Watkins Glen, and this weekend is no different," Ambrose said.
 
In the 2011 race, Ambrose passed Keselowski with two laps to go and then battled it out over the final two laps. On the final lap, a yellow flag came out when David Ragan got loose and hit the inside wall only to rebound across the lap where he slammed David Reutimann into the outside wall. When the flag was displayed, effectively ending the race, Ambrose held a couple car-length lead over Keselowski.
 
The win was Ambrose’s first in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series since joining the series fulltime in 2009.
 
His second victory came the following season at the same venue in what was a hold-on-to-your-hat last-lap face-off between the same two drivers who battled it out the previous year.
 
Kyle Busch entered the final lap of the 2012 edition with a slim margin over Keselowski and Ambrose. But midway through the last circuit Busch spun out and Keselowski grabbed the lead with Ambrose following closely in hot pursuit. Going into one of the final turns, Ambrose went wide and was able to slingshot past Keselowski for the win by a margin of 0.571 seconds.
 
"Last year was a really great finish. It was stressful, but a lot of fun to battle against Kyle and Brad the last few laps for the win," said Ambrose, who will once again be piloting the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford.
 
A third win in a row at The Glen would do wonders for Ambrose’s chances of making the postseason, or at least putting him in contention for a Wild Card spot. In the first 21 races, he’s posted only two top-10 finishes; however, one of them was a seventh at Sonoma Raceway, which hosts the only other road-course event on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule. He also finished eighth at Martinsville.
 
He currently sits 22nd in the standings, only five markers behind Jeff Burton in 20th. In order to be eligible to claim one of the two Wild Card spots, Ambrose would need to enter the top 20 in points and capture at least one win, if not two. In addition, he would have to pass three drivers (Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman) currently ranked between 11th and 20th in the standings with one win, which might be a tall order considering there are only five races remaining before the Chase field is set at Richmond. Ambrose, therefore, would also have to add an oval victory to his season stats — something he has never done in his NASCAR Sprint Cup career.
 
Stewart, however, will miss Sunday’s race after breaking his leg Monday night during a sprint car race at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. Stewart’s missed race could provide an opening for Ambrose if he wins at The Glen. If a win does move him into the top 20 and in front of Stewart, Ambrose would still need to find a way to pass Truex and Newman in the standings, or else find a second win in the final four races before the Chase begins. Both options will be steep uphill battles.
 
"We have had a tough season this year, but this race can very quickly turn it around and put us in contention for a Wild Card berth in the Chase," Ambrose said. "That’s what our goal is right now."
 
For those who might question whether Ambrose can realistically put together a three-peat at Watkins Glen, it’s definitely a possibility as he’s already done it once. From 2008-2010, he posted back-to-back-to-back victories at the road course while driving for JTG/Daugherty Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
 
Chase-Clinching Scenarios: Jimmie Johnson is the only driver this weekend with a mathematical possibility of clinching a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. If Johnson leaves The Glen with a 193-point lead over the 11th-place driver, he will reserve his spot in the postseason. Currently, he holds a 178-point lead over 11th. With a win at Watkins Glen, Johnson can also guarantee at least a Wild Card berth in the Chase.

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Posted on by Holly Cain

Furniture Row’s executive director of competition managed Richard Childress Racing alliance

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Richard Childress Racing made the first of several highly anticipated personnel moves this weekend, naming Mark McArdle as Director of Racing Operations effective immediately with Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at The Glen.

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The veteran McArdle has spent the season splitting time between RCR and the Denver-based Furniture Row Racing team as part of a technology partnership between the two organizations. Although he will still work in some capacity with Furniture Row because of the technical alliance, he will now be based fulltime in North Carolina, not at Furniture Row’s shop in Denver.

McArdle, who worked on three Indianapolis 500-winning teams, has spent more than two decades in motorsports and is highly regarded in NASCAR since his move from open-wheel in 1999.

"I am delighted to join the RCR family on a full-time basis, and be closer to where my family lives," McArdle said. "Having been part of the team on a shared basis with Furniture Row Racing makes me feel very comfortable and will make for a smooth transition.

“We have races to win and championships to earn this year at RCR. I’m going to focus all of my experience and knowledge on making that happen."

RCR Director of Competition, Dr. Eric Warren said the move was really quite seamless because, over the past few months, McArdle had spent the majority of the time in North Carolina as FRR further established itself a Chase contender with driver Kurt Busch. He had served as “executive” director of competition, but the organization has a full-time director of competition in Pete Rondeau, who remains in place there.

“At the beginning of the year, we said we’ll spend part of the time at RCR and part at FRR. What’s happened is it started out half and half, then it was 75 percent of the time here then 90 percent,’’ Warren said Sunday. “Eventually we realized we need to take the responsibility and bring him in full time from a business standpoint. It was as much a structural change as any.

The three-car RCR team also has other major decisions on its plate for the 2014 season. Driver Kevin Harvick will be vacating Childress’ No. 29 Chevy for the No. 4 at Stewart-Haas Racing, and there is a lot of speculation as to who will be named for that prime seat.

Ryan Newman, who Harvick will replace at SHR, is widely reported to among the candidates. Childress said Sunday, there are currently two leading possibilities, although he declined to give names.

Although nothing has been finalized, there is also a strong likelihood that Childress will move his grandson, Austin Dillon up from the Nationwide Series ranks to drive the No. 3 Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup Series.

Childress said Saturday he wasn’t ready to confirm any driver news just yet, but hoped to have contracts signed and things in place by the end of September with an announcement later, perhaps at the season-ending awards banquet unless a sponsor wants it done earlier.

“Ten years ago, you’d say to sponsor X, ‘we need you for the year, this is our driver, boom, let’s go,’ explained Childress. “Today, this one sponsor may say he wants 16 or 21 races. Then you have to fill the void and when you start doing that, it takes a lot more time to put all the parts and pieces together, and you don’t want to announce anything when you’re 80 percent done. If you’ve got to still sell six races, you don’t want to leave them out of that (announcement).

In the meantime, getting the competition department firmed up is an important first step moving forward.

"Mark’s (McArdle) experience with Furniture Row Racing was beneficial for both teams," Warren said. "His role has become more and more integral with RCR, especially with the oversight of all we have going on right now in all three series.

“We started working closer together with him and his involvement was becoming very important to our organization. His experience, technical knowledge and expertise in competition processes will be beneficial to RCR in many capacities."

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Both drivers solidified Chase spots; Bowyer, Harvick, Edwards, Kyle Busch all drop

                     

1. Jimmie Johnson       

Outlook: Johnson rallied for a respectable finish, but for a race in which he was a heavy favorite, it’s a disappointment for him. Still with his sudden tire issues, it could have been a lot worse.
Standings: 1st, 772 points

2. Matt Kenseth       

Outlook: Usually, when a driver spins at the end of the race, he’s not the one that ends up with the win. That’s just a general rule to live by. Example: Matt Kenseth at Pocono.
Standings: 7th, 638 points

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.       

Outlook: Of course he wants a win, but Junior was even dissatisfied with a fifth-place finish. Suppose he needed the victory with a track coming up that hasn’t historically been kind to him.
Standings: 5th, 656 points

4. Kasey Kahne       

Outlook: Kahne’s decision to make a move outside of Jeff Gordon after the last restart — not to mention the execution — was stellar. It’s why he ended up in Victory Lane, and Gordon was left blowing out his birthday candles, wishing for a do-over.
Standings: 8th, 612 points

5. Clint Bowyer       

Outlook: Bowyer, still looking for his first win in 2013, has to be thinking he’d rather be racing at Sonoma than Watkins Glen this weekend. The New York track has yet to fall into the same sort of mastery Bowyer has over Sonoma.
Standings: 2nd, 695 points

6. Kevin Harvick       

Outlook: All three Richard Childress Racing cars found themselves privy to something less than mediocrity on Sunday.
Standings: 4th, 675 points

7. Carl Edwards       

Outlook: Edwards is kind of the opposite of Bowyer when it comes to road courses, good at The Glen and average at Sonoma. He could be a sleeper pick this week, which is great news for him. Because that Phoenix win feels like forever ago.
Standings: 3rd, 688 points

8. Kyle Busch       

Outlook: If Busch was ever to get his revenge on Jimmie Johnson for whatever beef he had with Five-Time following qualifying, Pocono would have been the time to do it. Instead, he finished in eighth place, five spots ahead of Johnson.
Standings: 6th, 646 points

9. Jeff Gordon       

Outlook: Though he needed the win more than anything, Gordon and his team know how important the runner-up spot was in maintaining their consistency and his 2013 Chase hopes.
Standings: 9th, 602 points

10. Tony Stewart       

Outlook: Obviously, Stewart’s outlook hinges completely upon his broken leg, but something tells me he’ll do everything in his power to get back in that car before the Chase spots lock. You wouldn’t expect anything less, would you?
Standings: 11th, 594 points

11. Kurt Busch       

Outlook: Kurt Busch was tabbed our best value pick in NASCAR Fantasy Live this week, and with good reason. Throw in the fact that he’s solidly in the Chase hunt and never looked better, and it’s been a good week for Kurt, who also celebrated a birthday Sunday.
Standings: 13th, 588 points

12. Greg Biffle       

Outlook: Boy, Biffle is in a good spot because of that Michigan win. He’d be in such a shaky position right now if he was winless and at the bottom of the non-Wild Card standings.
Standings: 10th, 599 points

13. Ryan Newman       

Outlook: Something lit a fire in Newman ever since he learned he was out of a job for next season and he’s been on quite a roll. It’s a true inspirational rags to riches story. Still looking for a Chase spot, though.
Standings: 15th, 575 points

14. Brad Keselowski       

Outlook: It was a busy — but successful — weekend for the reigning champ, winning as an owner and driver on Saturday and beginning his recovery in the standings on Sunday with a sixth-place finish.
Standings: 15th, 575 points

15. Martin Truex Jr.       

Outlook: Can he do it again? Sitting in 14th (but with a Chase spot), he certainly knows he needs another victory. Don’t count on Truex to win another road course race, however. Remember how long it was between wins for him last time.
Standings: 14th, 584 points

16. Joey Logano       

Outlook: Logano has big shoes to fill (kind of) when he races in the Penske No. 48 Ford in the Nationwide race on Saturday, but if for nothing else it’ll give him some more laps on a course he doesn’t know too well in a race he needs to win on Sunday.
Standings: 17th, 561 points

17. Jamie McMurray       

Outlook: McMurray needs to do one thing. Pull a Truex. A “Truex”, of course, being shocking everyone by winning a on road course and making yourself relevant immediately. No sweat.
Standings: 16th, 566 points

18. Aric Almirola       

Outlook: Almirola’s tire popped on Sunday. His 2013 Chase hopes balloon popped a while ago, too.
Standings: 18th, 554 points

19. Paul Menard       

Outlook: It’s hard to believe Menard was actually relevant in the standings for such a good chunk of the season, with just four top-10 finishes to date.
Standings: 19th, 532 points

20. Jeff Burton       

Outlook: A Jeff Burton Chase run would have been fun, and even though he declared himself back in it at New Hampshire, that run looks to be about over.
Standings: 20th, 507 points

In the rearview

Note: These rankings have been determined by a poll that included writers Kenny Bruce, Holly Cain, David Caraviello and Zack Albert, and video host Alan Cavanna.

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Posted on by Staff Report

Vital stats for the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen

Track: Watkins Glen International, 2.45 miles, asphalt surface, 7-turn road course.

Time/TV: Cheez-It 355 at the Glen, 1 p.m. ET, Sunday, Aug. 11. TV: ESPN (coverage starts at noon ET). Radio: MRN; SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Channel 90.

Trailblazers: NASCAR Hall of Famer Buck Baker prevailed in the first NASCAR event at Watkins Glen, beating Fireball Roberts and Tiny Lund on Aug. 4, 1957. Billy Wade (1964) and Marvin Panch (1965) were the only other winners on the old 2.3-mile layout before NASCAR became an annual stop on the schedule in 1986. … Tony Stewart, injured in a sprint car crash earlier in the week, is the all-time winningest driver at Watkins Glen with five Sprint Cup victories.

.172 seconds is the closest margin of victory at Watkins Glen since the advent of electronic scoring. Jeff Gordon edged Jeff Burton by the scant interval in 2001.

1 is the number of women who have competed at Watkins Glen International in Sprint Cup competition. Patty Moise finished 33rd in 1987 and 30th in 1988 in her only WGI starts in NASCAR’s top division.

2.0 is the average finish at Watkins Glen for road-racing expert Marcos Ambrose, who has finished no worse than third in five career starts on the New York circuit. His Sprint Cup ledger at the Glen: two victories (2011, 2012), one runner-up finish (2009) and a pair of third-place efforts (2008, 2010).

6 is the number of victories at the Glen by Hendrick Motorsports, making it the winningest team at the 2.45-mile road course. Jeff Gordon has scored four career victories for HMS; Tim Richmond and Ricky Rudd each have one Glen win for Hendrick.

10 is the highest number of caution periods in a race for NASCAR’s top series at Watkins Glen. Kevin Harvick survived the wreck-filled event in 2006 for the only road-course win of his Sprint Cup career.

16 is the number of Watkins Glen wins by Chevrolet, most among the six manufacturers who have driven to Victory Lane at the New York track. Ford (seven wins), Pontiac (4), Toyota (1), Buick (1) and Mercury (1) have also prevailed at the Glen.

18 is the number of drivers who have won events in NASCAR’s premier series at Watkins Glen. Of those, only six (Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Marcos Ambrose and Ricky Rudd) have multiple victories.

24 is the difference, in years, between the oldest Watkins Glen winner and the youngest. Geoffrey Bodine was 47 years, 3 months and 24 days old when he scored his final win in NASCAR’s top series on Aug. 11, 1996; Kyle Busch was 23 years, 3 months and 8 days old when he prevailed at Watkins Glen on Aug. 10, 2008.

68 is the number of races for NASCAR’s premier series that have been held in the state of New York. Fifteen tracks in the Empire State have hosted Cup series events, but only Watkins Glen (30), the Monroe County Fairgrounds in Rochester (8) and Islip Speedway (6) have hosted more than five. The Rochester layout was a half-mile dirt track; The Islip circuit was a .2-mile paved oval, the shortest in the history of NASCAR’s top division.

87.071 is the speed in miles per hour of Buck Baker in winning the pole position for the first-ever professional event at Watkins Glen. He proceeded to lead all 44 laps in a 1957 Chevrolet.

101.2 miles is the distance of the first race for NASCAR’s premier series at Watkins Glen.

120.4 is the Watkins Glen driver rating for Tony Stewart, best in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Stewart, who will be unable to race Sunday as he recovers from a severely broken leg earlier in the week, also leads the series in average running position (5.7), fastest laps run (106) and quality passes (195).

124.95 miles is the distance of the only weather-shortened NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in Watkins Glen history. Kyle Petty notched the only road-course victory of his career when rain halted the 1992 event with just 51 of a scheduled 90 laps complete.

245 is the number of drivers who have competed in at least one race in NASCAR’s top series at Watkins Glen. Of that number, 151 drivers have more than one Watkins Glen start.

1,941 is the career number of laps turned in competition at Watkins Glen by Mark Martin, most of any NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver all-time. Martin, replaced in the No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota this weekend by Brian Vickers, is tied with Michael Waltrip and Terry Labonte for most Watkins Glen races with 22.

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Posted on by Staff Report

Owen Kelly has top-five finishes in two previous Nationwide Series starts

Tasmanian driver Owen Kelly will make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut in Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at The Glen (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Watkins Glen International.  On Tuesday, the sanctioning body issued an updated entry list for with Kelly in the No. 51 car.

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Kelly has two previous NASCAR starts — a pair of top-fives in NASCAR Nationwide Series events at Road America, most recently fourth earlier this year for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 car.

The 36-year-old’s first national series start came in 2010 at the Elkhart Lake, Wis. facility. He finished fifth in the No. 27 Baker Curb Racing car.

A former V8 Supercars racer in his native Australia, Kelly met Dale Earnhardt Jr. Down Under in 2007 and began driving for JR Motorsports Late Model team in 2008.

Fellow Tasmanian Marcos Ambrose has won the previous two Sprint Cup races at Watkins Glen.

AJ Allmendinger was originally listed in both the No. 51 car of Phoenix Racing and the No. 47 ride for JTG Daugherty Racing. He will drive the 47.

Allmendinger has four career Sprint Cup starts at Watkins Glen, with a top result of fourth for Richard Petty Motorsports in 2010. The former open-wheel driver has finished 13th or better in his past eight Sprint Cup starts on road courses, a stretch that dates back to the late summer of 2008 and also includes four events at Sonoma Raceway.

The 31-year-old northern California native has made nine starts for Phoenix Racing, as well as a pair for JTG Daugherty. His best finish is 11th at Phoenix International Raceway in the No. 51 car.

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Colombian driver aims for last-ditch Chase Wild-Card bid

Juan Pablo Montoya addressed the media in two languages Tuesday morning, but one universal truth spoken partly in English and in his native Spanish tongue stood out, even to the untrained ear.

“Timing es todo.”

True enough, timing has been everything for Montoya’s up-and-down season, but the same could also rings true for Tony Stewart, who will miss Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at the Glen (1 p.m. ET, ESPN) with a broken leg, suffered in a sprint car crash Monday night at an Iowa dirt track.

Montoya joined the NASCAR community on Twitter on Tuesday morning in sending well wishes to the three-time Sprint Cup Series champ, who — like Montoya — ranked as a pre-race favorite this weekend at the Watkins Glen International road course. But the Colombian, who has driven all sorts of vehicles in his racing career before finding a home with NASCAR, also noted that despite the hazards, racing at grass-roots levels is in Stewart’s blood.

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“Well, that’s just Tony,” Montoya said during NASCAR’s weekly teleconference. “I talk to Tony sometimes, and this year he was so excited he was going to go over 100 races in a year. It’s like for him, making 100 races in a year was a big deal. And you don’t see the dangers. You don’t think it’s dangerous, but there’s always a risk factor, you know what I mean? It’s racing. There’s nothing you can do.”

Stewart and Montoya each had seasons that got off to sluggish starts, but the two ran 1-2 in the June 2 race at Dover International Speedway after Stewart chased down Montoya to take the lead with three laps left for his first win of the year.

From there, Stewart’s season took off as he moved from 20th to 10th in the Sprint Cup standings in a span of three races; he’s remained in the Chase Wild-Card hunt ever since. For Montoya, his runner-up finish at the Monster Mile seemed to indicate momentum, two weeks removed from an eighth place at Darlington and four weeks after a near-win at Richmond.

The momentum didn’t materialize, and Montoya has just one top-10 finish (a ninth at Indianapolis) in the eight races since Dover to show for it. He ranks 23rd in points with five races left in the regular season, meaning to contend for a Wild-Card berth he’ll need at least one victory and some positive results to move into the 11th-20th eligibility range in points.

With his extensive background in road racing for this weekend and what he sees as a favorable lie with the five races ahead; Montoya says he has at least a puncher’s chance.

“There is a lot of really good races coming that we’ve been very close to winning this year that going there we know we have a chance,” Montoya said. “And you know, we know we’re throwing a lot of points away. We ran out of gas with one lap to go at Sonoma, for example, running second, and we converted a second‑place finish into a 36th‑place finish. We can’t do that. Like same thing this week (at Pocono), I made a mistake, we had loose tires in the pits, we had a gearbox fail. Everything freak that could happen has been happening, so it makes it a little hard.”

Montoya, like fellow road-racing specialist Marcos Ambrose, has two career Sprint Cup wins, both coming on road courses. Ambrose has won the last two races at Watkins Glen; Montoya has one win on each road circuit that hosts the series — the Glen (2010) and Sonoma Raceway (2007).

It’s an interesting mix that leaves Montoya confident he can cash in at Watkins Glen, yet hopeful that he can gain ground on the ovals that account for 34 of the 36 points-paying races on the Sprint Cup schedule.

“It’s not that we’re not trying. I’ve been very close (on ovals), a lot of opportunities, we’ve thrown them away. We’ve found ways to screw them up. But to tell you the truth, as a team we keep our head up and we keep fighting, and believe me, we believe we have a chance. We really, really believe that we have a good chance.

“We’ve just got to make sure ‑‑ the way we do it, like probably Marcos and myself, the only thing we need to do at the Glen to have a chance of winning is not screw up. Yeah, honestly. If we have 10 pit stops, we’re in the top three. I’ll guarantee you we’re in the top three. Worst-case scenario we’re fourth. If we run out of brakes, we’ll finish fifth.”

 

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Posted on by Nascar

J.D. Gibbs, Michael Waltrip touch on sprint car crash, how they feel about their drivers running in non-NASCAR events

Related: Full Stewart coverage | Drivers react | Helton, Jarrett make mention

J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, says he learned one thing about Tony Stewart during the driver’s successful 10-year run with the organization.

“You don’t try to tell Tony what to do,” Gibbs said Tuesday.

Stewart, who won two of his three NASCAR Cup titles and 33 races while competing for JGR, suffered a broken right leg in a crash Aug. 5 during a sprint car race at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Stewart-Haas Racing, of which Stewart is co-owner, has named Max Papis to drive the team’s No. 14 Chevrolet in Saturday’s Cheez-It 355 (1 p.m., ESPN) at Watkins Glen International.

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“You know, that’s where he came from,” Gibbs said of Stewart’s penchant for competing on the dirt in winged sprints. “So you just prayed a lot that he wouldn’t get hurt. He kind of did his own thing.

“I hate the fact that it happened to him, but it could happen to any driver out there.”

Stewart, who raced in open-wheel before making the transition to stock cars, often spends his time away from his Cup duties competing for his own Tony Stewart Racing organization, a separate entity from SHR. His schedule often includes 50 or more of the “outside” events each season.

Fellow team owner and driver Michael Waltrip was with Stewart and veteran racer Ken Schrader Aug. 1 at Paducah International Raceway, where Stewart and Schrader were competing.

“I got on the plane with Tony and he and I flew to Pocono (site of Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race) together,” Waltrip said. “He was talking about ‘I’m going to go here, and I’m going to go there and I’m going to race a sprint car there … and I’ve got to be in Atlanta (for testing),’” 

“What you have to understand (is) he loves sprint cars. He loves them. We watched videos on his phone of sprint car races. He would say ‘you can see here I bobbled a little bit.’ He was like a kid. It’s his passion.”

Both JGR and Michael Waltrip Racing field multiple Cup teams, and each have drivers that compete in the occasional non-NASCAR event.

Gibbs said there are “some rules,” but added, “at the same time, if that’s their passion, you can’t say no to everything.

“You’d like less than more, obviously. You want to make sure they’re in safe stuff … it’s about all you can do.”

Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 15 Toyota for MWR, fields a dirt Late Model team of his own.

“If Clint had shown up at Michael Waltrip Racing as a sprint car driver, knowing the dangers of it I would say, ‘can we consider maybe not running a sprint car? Maybe just run a dirt car, a dirt modified?’” Waltrip said. “Sprint cars are crazy fast.”

Waltrip said there is nothing written in stone that prevents his organization’s drivers from occasionally racing in non-NASCAR events.

“I just think it’s important for people to know that (Stewart) loves it,” Waltrip said. “And he is making people happy all over the country.

“People were so happy he was at Paducah to race. That’s his deal. He went to Iowa to race and unfortunately he got hurt.”

 

MORE:

WATCH: Final Laps:
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