NASCAR Sprint Cup Series CHEEZ-IT 355 at The Glen
Watkins Glen International Distance: 220.5 miles (90 laps)
Sunday, August 10 12 p.m. (ET) TV: ESPN, 1 p.m. (ET)
Radio: MRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
NASCAR Nationwide Series ZIPPO 200 at The Glen
Watkins Glen International Distance: 200.9 miles (82 laps)
Saturday, August 9 2:15 p.m. (ET) TV: ABC, 2 p.m. (ET)
Radio: MRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Careers for Veterans 200
Michigan International Speedway Distance: 200 miles (100 laps)
Saturday, August 16 12:30 p.m. (ET) TV: FOX Sports 1, 12 p.m. (ET)
Radio: MRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 5 Races left on 5 very different tracks.
The 2014 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is all about the wins & if you are not 1st you are last. If you already have a win a win means 3 more bonus points tacked onto their total to start the Chase.
There are some big names out there battling for their playoff lives: Car 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, Car 14 Tony Stewart Code 3/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, and Car 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford. If the Chase started today, only Biffle would make it among the three perennial Chasers.
Car 9 Marcos Ambrose DeWalt Ford: The series’ unofficial “road course ringer” He’s won 2 of the last 3 races there, and he has never finished worse than 3rd.
Car 14 Tony Stewart Code 3/Mobil 1 Chevrolet: The king of Watkins Glen, Stewart boasts five wins at the Glen, the most all-time at the update New York road course. His last two finishes were outside the top 10, but he has scored a driver rating above 100 in six of the last seven races at Watkins Glen.
Car 47 AJ Allmendinger Scott Products Chevrolet: Last year, Allmendinger went 2-for-2 at road courses in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, so he knows how to win at this style. At Watkins Glen, he’s finished in the top 10 in each of the last three races. He led 35 laps at Sonoma before finishing 35th.
Car 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Chevrolet: He could sneak up on the field in this one. The 2014 season has been mostly a slog for Truex, but one win could erase all ills. Currently 26th in points, a win is pretty much the only means of advancement into the Chase. It’s not impossible. After all, he won last year at Sonoma and finished in the top 10 in each of the last three Watkins Glen races (including third last year).
Car 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet: Kahne has a Sonoma win on his record, but it’s a different story at Watkins Glen. In 10 starts there, he has yet to score a top-10 finish. He has a ton of momentum on his side, however, with five top-10 finishes in the last seven races.
Car 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford: Biffle is coming off only his third top five finish of the season. That’s the good news. The not so good news: With an average finish of 23.1, the Glen ranks as his worst track.
NASCAR Nationwide Series
NASCAR Nationwide Series for its first of back-to-back road courses. First up, Watkins Glen International (Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is on deck). The challenge of the consecutive road courses on the schedule could significantly transform a competitor’s championship run, especially JR Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott and Regan Smith who currently sit 1-2 in the standings and hope to make it through unscathed.
Elliott’s rookie season is continuing to turn heads. In 20 starts, he has posted three wins (tied for the series-most with Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski), eight top fives, 14 top 10s and an average finish of 9.2. His NASCAR Loop Data backs his early success up even more; his season-to-date Driver Rating is 108.5 and his Average Running Position is 7.424 (both are second only to Kyle Busch). Though Elliott faces some uncertainty in making his series debut at Watkins Glen this weekend, he did well at the road course Road America earlier this season, finishing in the top-five.
Elliott can’t let up though. His rear-view mirror is full of a championship hungry Regan Smith. The two JR Motorsports teammates have swapped the series standings lead three times this season. Smith, who calls Cato, N.Y. his hometown, has posted one win, four top fives, 17 top 10s (series-most) and an average finish of 8.9 this season. Smith has three starts at Watkins Glen, posting one top five and an average finish of 15.3 – he finished fourth in this event last season.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Joe Nemechek and his son John Hunter, who share the No. 8 SWM-NEMCO Motorsports Toyota Tundra SWM, have adopted a “friendly family challenge” this season, comparing finishes and laps led. Surprisingly, the 17-year-old has held his own against his father, who won the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 1992.
The elder Nemechek owns the top finish with a third-place performance at Texas Motor Speedway, but John Hunter has been close with two sixth-place runs. John Hunter takes bragging rights with 53 laps led compared to his father’s four.
And together, the Nemechek’s have helped SWM-NEMCO Motorsports hold the sixth spot in the owner points rankings (383).
The Nemecheks split time in the No. 8 SWM-NEMCO Motorsports Toyota Tundra because John Hunter can only compete on road courses and tracks that are 1.25 miles or less due to NASCAR’s age policy (a driver must be 18 or older to drive on track longer than 1.25 miles). Joe has competed in six races, while John Hunter has driven in five. If all goes according to plan, John Hunter will race in five of the final 11 events on the series, while Joe will take the reins for the other six.
Joe competed in the last series event, the Pocono Mountains 150 at Pocono Raceway, posting his fourth top-10 finish in six starts this season. The younger Nemechek owns three top-10 finishes and has eclipsed a 100-point driver rating twice in his five starts.
Joe will pilot the No. 8 for his first series start at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway in the Careers for Veterans 200 on Aug. 13 (12:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1). He has competed only in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series at the track during his career. John Hunter’s next start in the series will come the following race on the .533-mile oval course at Bristol Motor Speedway in the UNOH 200 Presented by ZLoop on Aug. 20 (8:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1).
With five wins in five starts this season, it would seem Kyle Busch is unstoppable. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver returns to the No. 51 truck on Aug. 16 where he will meet his biggest challenge yet – Michigan International Speedway. In seven starts at the track, he has yet to find victory lane, making it the only track on his 2014 schedule at which he remains winless in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. (Note: Of the tracks on the entire current NCWTS schedule, Busch remains winless at Pocono, Michigan, Martinsville and Las Vegas.)
Busch’s last start in the series came almost two months ago in the UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway on June 26, where he logged his sixth consecutive victory dating back to 2013. He led 91 laps (60.7%) on his way to the checkered flag after declaring, “Look forward to seeing you in Victory Lane” during driver introductions.
Although he has competed in just five races, Busch’s five wins lead the series, as do his 500 laps led. The next closest drivers in the series in those statistical categories are teammate Darrell Wallace, Jr. with two wins and 291 laps led and Matt Crafton with two wins and 223 laps led. Additionally, Busch has posted a perfect 150.0 driver rating in four of his five starts and boasts a 143.8 driver rating for the season.
While he has not recorded a win at Michigan in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Busch won the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s Pure Michigan 400 in 2011 and the NASCAR Nationwide’s Cabelas 250 in 2004.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will head to Watkins Glen International Friday for the Bully Hills Vineyard 125, led by championship points leader Ben Rhodes. There will be a number of road-course ringers in the field, most notably, two-time NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1 champion Andrew Ranger and two-time NASCAR Whelen Euro Series champion Ander Vilarino. Ranger has 19 Canadian Tire wins (16 on road courses). He’s also won three times in the K&N Pro Series (all on road courses). Vilarino, who will be joined by 2013 championship runner-up Frederic Gabillon at The Glen, has 16 Whelen Euro wins (15 on road courses). Also in the field will be NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie Austin Dillon. Watch for Car 98 Cameron Hayley Cabinets By Hayley Chevrolet coming out strong for his 1st win of 2014 in the series with his love of this track.
NASCAR Canadian Tire Series
Ranger will be pulling double-duty. He will also be the favorite for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race Sunday with the JuliaWine.com Le 50 Tours. The race will again be part of the prestigious Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres, an annual racing festival through the streets of Trois-Rivieres that celebrates its 45th running in 2014. Ranger has won four times at Trois-Rivieres. DJ Kennington is the defending race champion, while Trois-Rivieres’ own L.P. Dumoulin leads the championship standings entering his hometown race. Formula Drift multi-time champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. will make his NASCAR debut at Trois-Rivieres.
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway will also mark the start of the second half of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season. Championship leader Doug Coby has won the Call Before You Dig 811 150 in each of the two previous seasons, and was victorious in the tour’s last visit to the historic half-mile in early June. Coby and Bobby Santos, who won the first 2014 Stafford race, have combined to take the checkered flag in 11 of the last 17 events there.
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