Watkins Glen International has always been one of my favorite dates of the NASCAR Cup Series calendar. It is the track that hosted the first Cup race I ever saw on television. It is also the track at which I first covered a race on a press credential.
Going into the race weekend, the new curbs and the softer tires were the biggest stories. The thought was that the tires were going to change up the on-track product. That didn’t really come to pass, at least not from what I saw. The drivers largely feel the same way.
The new curbs played a bigger role. After Friday night’s (Sept. 13) ARCA Menards Series race, I talked to William Sawalich on pit road and asked him about them. He liked them and thought that it could make drivers more aggressive.
At the time, I was thinking about the issue in a mostly defensive fashion. By the time I got back to the media center, I was convinced that someone was going to hit the wall entering the Inner Loop in a key moment. Sure enough, that happened.
Unfortunately for viewers, it was really hard to tell that Shane van Gisbergen had actually clouted the wall on the final lap with the angle used on both the live broadcast and replays. I only found out about it when van Gisbergen did interviews after the race.
Since I was in the media center at the time of the battle, I had a worse vantage point than most of you reading this article. The TVs closest to me were rather far away, so it was difficult to make out such details (also, I don’t have the best eyesight in the world). However, even with a good view, it was hard to make out the wall contact. The booth didn’t notice it live, either. By the time the replay from Chris Buescher’s roof cam showed van Gisbergen’s wall contact, I was already out behind pit road.
During his live call, Leigh Diffey compared the Buescher-van Gisbergen battle to the infamous battle in 2012 between Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose. While this was a thrilling battle, it didn’t have the third party throwing a wrench into the battle like back then, when Bobby Labonte was dropping oil. Unless you want to consider the Armco the third party.
Regardless, Diffey nailed the call of the final lap of the race. This was a great battle, and both drivers came away happy (more or less).
There were some other issues that weren’t covered. Apparently, Zane Smith administered a bump-and-run on Michael McDowell on the final lap to take fifth. McDowell was reportedly not happy about it and confronted Smith on pit road. I did not see the confrontation, but NASCAR did.
The first-lap crash was somewhat confusing. Yes, the broadcast was able to figure out that it was caused by Corey LaJoie running into Busch and creating a stack-up.
The Ryan Blaney situation was puzzling. The footage really didn’t indicate what could have been wrong. It was the radio chatter that indicated the steering issue. It’s just the worst part of the Damaged Vehicle Policy, which I was against from the start and still believe is nothing short of trash that doesn’t save a dime. No wonder he was so angry at the infield care center.
The broadcast made extensive use of the NASCAR Drive cameras, especially with the first-lap wreck. It definitely helped give viewers a sense of what happened there. Wish those cameras could pan, but you’d need a lot more operators in order to do that (note: the regular in-car cameras provided by BSI generally require one person to operate the cameras for two cars).
The tires were a big story entering the weekend. However, the expected wear didn’t really come to pass. There was a bunch of marbles, though.
Having said that, the broadcast did mention that Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 19 had been cording left rear tires all day. It did not show any kind of evidence of what it looked like. For that matter, we didn’t see any tires all day to figure out what they looked like.
The only one that we did see was a wheel off of Daniel Suarez’s car. That was for a different reason. Suarez’s crew failed to get one of his wheels tight, leading to the wheel being ripped apart. The issue deposited him in the gravel before the wheel could come off the car, preventing a nasty penalty but likely changing the outcome of the race.
For some reason, USA Network only gave Sunday’s race a two-hour timeslot. On paper, that sounds ridiculous. Then I thought about it. It’s almost like networks treat scheduling for sporting events like the highway department treats road salt procurement in a colder climate. It orders less for the following winter after a warmer winter with a lack of snow and/or ice. That strategy doesn’t always work.
That is the situation Sunday at Watkins Glen. The race took 40 minutes longer to run this year as compared to last year’s sub-two-hour affair. As a result, the slot for the race was over with 24 laps to go.
Normally, this would mean that post-race coverage would have been pretty minimal. At least on the regular broadcast, that was the case. There were interviews with Buescher and van Gisbergen, along with a check of the points there. There were additional interviews after that on NASCAR America Post-Race. NASCAR’s rules for bullpen attendance (positions 2-5, plus all the playoff drivers that finished the race) this time of year literally mandated that more than half the field make themselves available, which is rare. Problem is, you can’t talk to everyone in that short amount of time.
Racing-wise, NASCAR loop data indicates that there was a lot more passing than last year, roughly double the amount per lap under green. That sounds great, but it really didn’t look like it. Perhaps the late cautions played a role.
When we did get good racing on Sunday, USA did a decent job bringing that coverage to viewers. I’m still not sure what happened to Juan Pablo Montoya, though. He was running in the top 10 early in the final stage, then ended up a lap down.
That’s all for this week. Later on this week, Bristol Motor Speedway will play host to a quadruple-header of action. Thursday (Sept. 19) night is a doubleheader with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and a combination race for the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East. Friday (Sept. 20) night will be the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ debut on The CW, while the NASCAR Cup Series wraps up the Round of 16 Saturday (Sept. 21). IMSA will also be in action in Indianapolis. TV listings can be found here.
We will have a critique of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race in next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday. If there is space, we’ll also cover the Food City 300 on The CW. If not, we’ll cover that next week in the Frontstretch Newsletter. For this week’s Critic’s Annex, we’re going to look at Sunday’s IndyCar finale on NBC.
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Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.