NASCAR Preview of The Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen
The last two NASCAR races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway were at tracks where pit strategy is called by the crews, similar to the strategy at a road course race. This week’s race is no different, except the race is actually a road course race. This week NASCAR is at Watkins Glen International for The Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen.
The Watkins Glen road course is 2.45 miles in length and has seven turns. The race is 90 laps or about 220.5 miles. Setting up a car for racing at a road course is similar to other tracks; the team who gets their car handling the best throughout the course will be fast. Unlike the oval tracks, however, the fastest car doesn’t necessarily win the race. The car that is the fastest and near the front at the end of the race wins. This is where pit strategy comes in.
The crew chiefs work the race backward on paper, figuring which lap at the end of the race to make their last pit stop. If they can be the first or one of the first to make that last pit stop, as well as being one of the fastest cars, they will win the race. Last year Kyle Busch led a race high 49 laps out of 90, more than half the race. Marcos Ambrose and his team made the right calls on pit road. He got near the front at the end and led 21 laps on his way to getting his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win.
Some of the drivers to watch for in this race are as follows: Tony Stewart leads all active drivers with five wins. To go with that, he also has the highest driver rating of a commanding 124.8. Jeff Gordon has four race wins here but has not done well lately so his driver rating of 90.1 is not very impressive. Marcos Ambrose and Juan Pablo Montoya won this race last year and the year before. Look for them to have good runs. Kyle Busch will pick up where he left off last year and has something to prove.
Jeff Gordon leap frogged everyone with his rain shortened win at Pocono and is now in position to get the second wild card spot in the Chase. “I know this is probably not the victory that we were really looking for or the way that we wanted to win it, but the way our season has gone, as close as we’ve been, you know what, even the win under these circumstances is still going to be a great boost for us to go through these next five races” Jeff said about his victory.
Unfortunately for Jeff there are some drivers who also have a single race win that are not too many points away. They could overtake Jeff very easily. Each and every one of them could also get another win. This race and all the others before the Chase are only about winning. There is no racing just for points.
If you can’t get to the track the race will be on Sunday August 12 on ESPN at 1 PM ET.
Brian Berg Jr. is the Lead NASCAR writer for www.RantSports.com.
Follow him on Twitter @brian_jr1 during the race and throughout the week for more NASCAR news and commentary. On Facebook at NASCAR News and Commentary
Top 12 Driver Rating at Watkins Glen
Tony Stewart……………………….. 124.
Marcos Ambrose…………………. 118.0
Juan Pablo Montoya…………….. 112.6
Kyle Busch…………………………. 106.8
Jimmie Johnson…………………… 100.7
Kurt Busch……………………………. 94.7
Denny Hamlin……………………….. 93.5
Carl Edwards……………………….. 93.5
Jeff Gordon………………………….. 90.1
Kevin Harvick………………………… 89.2
Brad Keselowski……………………. 88.1
Martin Truex Jr………………………. 87.6
Note: Driver Rating compiled from 2005-2011 races (seven total) at Watkins Glen International.
