What Happened?
Overtime turned physical as Chris Buescher moved Shane van Gisbergen on the final lap to get his first win of the season at Watkins Glen. The Texan moved the New Zealander after van Gisbergen bumped Buescher in turn 1 on the restart.
Behind the battle for the win, Carson Hocevar recorded a new career high, winding up third. Ross Chastain and Zane Smith finished fourth and fifth, rounding out a Chevy-heavy top five.
A rash of cautions involving playoff drivers led to the overtime finish, and no playoff drivers scored a top five.
What Really Happened?
Unlike a typical oval race, road course races are massively affected by strategy surrounding stage cautions and stage points.
For road course races late in the season, drivers in the playoffs and around the bubble consistently opt to stay out and collect stage points. However, other drivers without playoff implications choose to pit before the stage ends without losing a lap, thus flipping the stage.
The stage point collection strategy used to work back in the day when drivers raced with more respect and when passing on road courses was possible.
These days, staying out for stage points is just not worth it.
First of all, passing on most road courses has become extremely difficult. For drivers who already have track position at the beginning of the day, sacrificing that place at the beginning of the run to grab 10 or less points puts them back in a position to score less points at the end of the race. Stick around for some examples.
Secondly, the safest place in a race where a lot is on the line is at the front. The middle of the pack on back becomes a massive minefield, especially at a track with multiple narrow spots where drivers decide to use each other rather than their pedals to slow down.
Staying out for a few stage points early traps bunches of playoff guys back in the pack where they get more desperate and began to run the non-playoff guys — and each other — over. Let’s look at some examples for today.
Martin Truex Jr. easily had a top-five car at the start of the race. He stayed out to win stage one, but was stuck in 18th when he decided to flip stage two. Through pit stops, he got as high as third, and was in ninth before the Harrison Burton caution came out.
Truex led the stampede on the next restart and slipped. He was involved in a later crash but passed a few cars late to finish 20th.
In practice, Tyler Reddick showed great speed. Despite a mediocre qualifying effort, Reddick actually had the ability to pass cars, and he drove to ninth before pit stops started. Reddick entered with a 33-point gap to the cut line, but he stayed out to finish stage one in seventh, grabbing four stage points.
On the next restart, Reddick was spun out and sustained damage. He later got collected in some more messes and finished 27th, earning an extra 10 points and amassing a whopping 14 points on the day.
There are a number of other examples from stage one, but let’s look at stage two.
Ty Gibbs and William Byron flipped the first stage, but they did not employ that strategy in stage two. Instead, both drivers stayed out, collecting seven and six stage points. Both drivers had marginal success moving back through the field, but the loss of track position, plus the decision to pit again late, put the two directly in harm’s way.
Gibbs finished 22nd, earning 21 total points, while Byron wound up 34th, taking home nine points from the day. Both drivers would have scored more by sacrificing stage points and finishing in the top 15.
Every single top-five finisher played the track position strategy to forego stage points, minus Ross Chastain and van Gisbergen. Even those two opted to keep their track position instead of pit at the end of stage two.
More often than not, chasing stage points results in earning less points overall. While guys like Hocevar, Buescher, Zane Smith, Corey LaJoie and Michael McDowell missed out on earning stage points, they all walked away from Watkins Glen having earned more points than the playoff guys that earned the stage points.
Sure, the argument exists that the playoff teams have more to race for, and that’s why they went after stage points whereas the aforementioned drivers did not.
Again, I rest my case. Scoring a top-15 finish with no stage points is just as valuable as finishing well in both stages but ending the day outside the top 20 due to crashes, disrespectful driving or the overall inability to pass.
Then again, this whole issue could be avoided if stage cautions went away once again. But I doubt that will happen anytime soon.
Who Stood Out?
Just when you think Hocevar can’t look any better, he does. With a better restart, the rookie very well could have inserted himself into the battle for the race win. Hocevar set a new career high in third. For all of his mistakes, Hocevar’s impressive skills continue to shine brighter each week.
Spire Motorsports really had a great weekend as a whole. All three cars finished inside the top 10, with Smith showing impressive speed en route to fifth. LaJoie also stood out, for better and for worse, even after running over Kyle Busch (again) early. Still, LaJoie ran well all day and converted his speed into an eighth-place finish.
Who Fell Flat?
In an age where qualifying matters more than ever at road courses, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney did not live up to their expectations.
Blaney has finished last for the second time in three weeks, with zero fault in either incident. He still has a decent gap over the cut line, though, sitting 29 points ahead of Hamlin.
Meanwhile, Hamlin had yet another horrible day. In three of the last four races at The Glen, Hamlin has finished in the top five. The early incident put the No. 11 team way behind schedule. Driving in desperation, Hamlin got turned by Brad Keselowski in the esses.
The No. 11 somehow finished on the lead lap in 23rd, but Hamlin is six points behind teammate Gibbs entering Bristol.
Better Than Last Time?
Compared to the other Next Gen Glen races, this one had much more action. The playoff atmosphere certainly helped up the intensity, and we did see drivers making mistakes on their own, rather than looking stuck to the track lap after lap.
The pileups late continued an ugly trend for NASCAR as of late, but the one overtime finish did make up for the multiple sighs of disappointment over the previous few laps.
The tire falloff was a big conversation entering the race, but it did not really show much of an effect until the final stage. Sure, the lap times showed signs of falloff, but the real tire falloff was the rubber marbles that fell off and out of the groove.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Watkins Glen didn’t lend itself to very many new, exciting paint schemes on the track this weekend. Gibbs promoted the Xfinity Series’ move to The CW for the remainder of the season with this black and orange livery.
However, the track itself did debut some new paint on the rumble strips, as well as a few minor adjustments to the layout. Maybe that contributed to the playoff chaos.
What’s Next?
The Bristol Night Race returns this Saturday, Sept. 21, to end the Round of 16. Coverage for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race will start at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!