Track position typically means a great deal in the NASCAR Cup Series at Watkins Glen, especially over the past three years in the NextGen era, but the Go Bowling at the Glen on Sunday stands to be a drastically different race than the two that came before it.
That is because Goodyear has brought a drastically different road course tire than ever before in this current generation of Cup Series racing and it delivered as advertised in practice on Saturday in the form of two-to-three seconds over a 10-lap run.
Both Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch spun in practice too.
“It is quite a bit,” Austin Cindric said of the tire degradation. “It is definitely going to affect strategy. We will look at the notes and see how long we can make it live.”
Ross Chastain, who is not in the playoffs this year, will start the race from the pole alongside playoff contender and former champion Martin Truex Jr.
But there are also some playoff drivers in the back half of the field are going to need to hope passing is easier over long runs with tire fall off because they need stage points and track position. Ryan Blaney starts 30th, Brad Keselowski starts 28th, Denny Hamlin starts 22nd, Kyle Larson starts 20th and Christopher Bell starts 17th.
“I thought the fall off was really good,” Hamlin said. “Certainly, Goodyear has hit on something here something that is great for the future.”
With that said, Watkins Glen is still the figurative superspeedway of road courses with its long fast-flowing corners and no true hard braking zones, which is why it’s hard to pass here. There is just not a lot of off-throttle time and a tire that loses life over the course of a run doesn’t change that.
That was the point made by Noah Gragson afterwards.
“It certainly is going to be hard to pass, no doubt,” Gragson said. “Even with the fall-off I don’t know if you can save and make it up on the back half of the run and be better. We are going to have to wait and see a little bit. I think track position will be key all day. It will be hard to pass and you will have to make up positions on pit road.”
Michael McDowell anticipates the fall off helping.
“Track position will be important, but maybe with fall-off it will be a little easier to pass,” McDowell said.
For those playoff contenders outside the top-10 and hoping to get there to potentially have a chance to earn stage points, Hamlin articulated what that pathway to Lap 20 looks like.
“It’s not impossible but I think it comes down to needing a good first lap or restarts, get three or four there and then see who jumps the stages and who doesn’t,” Hamlin said.
By jumping the stage, he means those who pit before the stage break, giving up points, but having track position at the start of the next stage, and therefore controlling the race leading to the finish.
“The tires will last that long (20) but after 15 laps but if you wear them out, you will have cars really off the pace,” Hamlin said. “It’s not impossible but certainly harder than had I qualified closer to the top-10.”
Watkins Glen starting lineup
- Ross Chastain
- Martin Truex, Jr. (P)
- Shane Van Gisbergen
- Alex Bowman (P)
- Austin Cindric (P)
- AJ Allmendinger
- Joey Logano (P)
- Daniel Suarez (P)
- Noah Gragson
- Michael McDowell
- William Byron (P)
- Chase Briscoe (P)
- Kyle Busch
- Chase Elliott (P)
- Ty Gibbs (P)
- Tyler Reddick (P)
- Christopher Bell (P)
- Corey LaJoie
- Zane Smith
- Kyle Larson (P)
- Ryan Preece
- Denny Hamlin (P)
- Austin Dillon
- Chris Buescher
- Erik Jones
- Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
- Daniel Hemric
- Brad Keselowski (P)
- Carson Hocevar
- Ryan Blaney (P)
- Josh Berry
- Bubba Wallace
- Harrison Burton (P)
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Justin Haley
- Todd Gilliland
- Kaz Grala