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The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
by The Frontstretch Staff
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Records and facts
Last year, AJ Allmendinger took the lead away from Marcos Ambrose on a late restart and held off the best road racers in Sprint Cup to take a highly emotional first career Sprint Cup Series victory.
Despite Jeff Gordon's high level of success on road courses, it is actually Tony Stewart that is the all-time winningest Cup driver at Watkins Glen with five career victories,. The most recent of those wins came in 2009 when the race was pushed to Monday due to rain. Gordon has four Watkins Glen victories, all of which came between 1997-2001. Kyle Busch also has two victories (2008 and '13) and came very close to a third in 2012.
Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 2.45-mile 11 turn road course, 90 laps (220.5 miles)
Banking: Variable, between 6-10 degrees
Grandstand Seating: 41,000
Pit Road Speed: 40 mph
Pace Car Speed: 45 mph
Opened: 1956, although racing on the site of the current track first took place in 1953 (first Cup race in 1957, first modern-era race was in 1986).
Website: http://www.theglen.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WatkinsGlenInternational
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wgi
Pre-Race Schedule:
Practice 1: Friday, August 7, 11:30 a.m. - 12:50 p.m. ET on NBCSN
Happy Hour: Friday, August 7, 4:40 p.m. - 5:55 p.m. ET on NBCSN
Qualifying: Saturday, August 8 at 1:15 p.m. ET on NBCSN
Say What?!
"I'm really excited to go racing again in the Cup car. I've had some success on road courses last year, and I think Watkins Glen was a good track for us. I didn't get to do Sonoma earlier this year, but I feel like we can get back into it at Watkins Glen and have a good day. I'm not a road course specialist by any means, but I really enjoy it. And each time we go out, we learn a lot, have a lot of fun and seem to do pretty decent at the same time. It's been a couple months since I've worked with the 34 team, but I think we'll get right back into a rhythm. I know they've been working hard on the Bully Hill Vineyards car, and I I think we'll be up to speed pretty quick." - Chris Buescher
"I can't wait to get to Watkins Glen [International]. As the years have gone on, I've really grown to like road course racing. After racing the Sprint Cup car at Watkins Glen last year, I feel like I'm much more prepared for this weekend's race. I know what to expect with the heavier Cup car and also how the other drivers navigate the course. It looks like the weather is going to be nice this weekend, so I don't think we will have to worry about the rain tires. The guys at HScott Motorsports have built me a great BRANDT Chevy and I'm excited to get to the track this weekend." - Justin Allgaier
"I like going to Watkins Glen. It's a road course, but it's kind of a high-speed road course. The difference in the two road courses, you think of Sonoma as like a Martinsville-type road course and you would think of Watkins Glen like a 2-mile oval, like a California- or Michigan-type road course. Watkins Glen has some speed and has some wide-open spaces a little bit, but there is still a lot of great racing that happens there since you are able to out-brake people getting into the corners, or having a better run through the bus stop, or maybe getting by someone in the carousel. It's a fun place to race. I really like Watkins Glen and I hope that we can have another solid run there with our M&M's Crispy Camry and get ourselves up into the top 30." - Kyle Busch
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Q: For Sterling Marlin, the 2004 SIRIUS at the Glen is probably a race to forget. He ended up spinning into the barrier exiting turn 1. When asked what happened by NBC, what did Marlin say?
Thursday's Answer:
Q: The opening laps of the 2000 Global Crossing at the Glen were quite exciting with two of NASCAR's most popular drivers finding the wall. What happened?
A: Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart made contact exiting turn 1 on lap 2, then proceeded to run side-by-side through the Esses. This will be known as mistake No. 1. Stewart ended up losing traction and sliding into Gordon in turn 3, putting Gordon into the wall and ruining Gordon's day. It also led to a memorable confrontation in the garage after the race.
Later that lap Dale Earnhardt, who was running second at the time, spun exiting the Inner Loop and hit the styrofoam blocks, bringing out the yellow. Both incidents can be seen here. Both drivers continued after their incidents. Gordon finished 23rd while Earnhardt was 25th.
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