The village of Watkins Glen in upstate New York has long attracted visitors from all across the world — not necessarily for its lakes or its woodlands, but for its world-renowned racetrack. On Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series makes its annual trip to Watkins Glen International for the Go Bowling at the Glen, a race significant for far more than being the penultimate race of the regular season.
This 3.45-mile, 11-turn road course — long the site of Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix — will see 39 drivers representing seven countries compete on it this Sunday, making for the most international drivers in a single race in the history of NASCAR.
The group of international stars is headlined by 2007 Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who is making his NASCAR Cup Series debut behind the wheel of Trackhouse Racing’s No. 91 Chevrolet. The legendary Finnish driver is joined by:
- Former 24 Hours of Le Mans champion and German driver Mike Rockenfeller
- Former F1 standout and Russian driver Daniil Kvyat
- Loris Hezemans of the Netherlands
- Kyle Tilley of Britain
All of them join the NASCAR regulars, 33 of whom hail from the United States and one from Mexico (Daniel Suarez).
How to watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Watkins Glen
- Date: Sunday, August 21
- Location: Watkins Glen International — Watkins Glen, New York
- Time: 3 p.m. ET
- TV: USA Network
- Stream: fuboTV (try for free)
What to watch for
Kimi Raikkonen
Of all the international drivers in the field, Kimi Raikkonen is undoubtedly the star attraction. “The Iceman” comes to the Cup Series through Trackhouse Racing’s Project91 program for international racing superstars, coming out of retirement to try his hand at the highest level of stock car racing. This isn’t Raikkonen’s first try at NASCAR: In May of 2011, Raikkonen competed in a pair of NASCAR races at Charlotte Motor Speedway, first driving a Truck Series race for Kyle Busch Motorsports before competing in an Xfinity Series race the next weekend. Raikkonen finished 15th and 27th respectively.
While Raikkonen only has limited experience in stock cars, what he has going for him is the strength of Trackhouse Racing’s road course program: The team has won two of the four road course races so far this season, with Ross Chastain taking the victory at Circuit of the Americas and Daniel Suarez having won at Sonoma.
The road course warriors
While the presence of international racing stars throughout the field provides this race with a lot of its intrigue, those drivers will likely take a backseat to the Cup Series regulars once the green flag flies. Especially since it is absolutely imperative for a significant chunk of the field to perform well this weekend. At the head of the table among that group is Martin Truex Jr., who has been outstanding at Watkins Glen ever since winning at this track in 2017. In the last three Watkins Glen races since his win, Truex has two runner-up finishes and was third last year.
Chris Buescher, surely, also enters this race with an enormous level of confidence. He finished second at Sonoma, sixth at Road America and 10th at Indianapolis. He is also coming off of an extremely strong run at Richmond in which he challenged for the win before finishing third. Another Ford driver, Michael McDowell, has no finishes worse than 13th and only one finish worse than eighth on road courses this year — including a third-place outing at Sonoma.
The possibility of some completely unexpected drivers entering the picture shouldn’t be discounted, either. Indianapolis, for instance, saw rookies Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland take advantage of late-race anarchy to earn third and fourth-place finishes respectively.
A cleaner race
Speaking of Indy, keep an eye out for something that was a major sore point after the most recent road course race. The end of the race at Indianapolis saw many drivers lament how that race devolved on late restarts, with ill-advised divebombs and overaggressive driving leading to a series of incidents that spoiled several drivers’ days and left them grumbling about a lack of respect.
Watkins Glen should be a little better in that regard, as the configuration of the course is far more natural than the road course at Indianapolis. The trouble spot at Indy was an extremely sharp Turn 1 that led the field out of the oval and onto the infield road course, a spot that was ill-suited for any semblance of order on double-file restarts. Watkins Glen’s more sweeping corners don’t present that same issue, even if the downhill section leading from the frontstretch to Turn 1 makes for an ideal passing zone on restarts and long runs alike.
Pick to Win
(Odds via Caesars Sportsbook)
Tyler Reddick (+650): It’s never a bad idea to go with the hot hand when trying to handicap road course races. And right now, Reddick is the hot hand. He’s won the last two road course races in Cup, leading the final 16 laps to win at Road America before dominating at Indy by leading 38 of 86 laps on his way to victory. Reddick also contended for the win at Circuit of the Americas and finished fifth, and he had a top five qualifying run at Sonoma before finishing many laps down due to left rear damage.
Reddick can stake his claim to being NASCAR’s King of the Road with another win here, but Chase Elliott isn’t going to give up that title without a fight. Elliott is the favorite to win this weekend (+450) and for good reason: he’s won two of the last three at the Glen and ran second here last year.