Watkins Glen Weekend Recap

I want to start out by thanking the Watkins Glen International staff for their hospitality this weekend, they have been extremely helpful and accommodating. Upon arriving the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East was on track practicing. It was very evident that these were the first laps many of these drivers were making at the Glen. Most of them had heavy wheel hop going into turn 1 and had issues smoothly navigating the esses. Australian rookie Brodie Kostecki was fastest in practice. He also won the 21 Means 21 pole award setting a new track record for the K&N Pro Series with a lap of 72.869 seconds (121.039 mph). Brodie Kostecki had to retire 4 laps into the Bully Hill Vineyards 125 with suspension issues. Andrew Ranger lead 30 laps during the race before giving up the lead to Scott Heckert a second year K&N Pro Series East driver. The Bully Hill Vineyards 125 was the first career win for Heckert and the race was finished under a green-white-checkered. Both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series had practice sessions on Friday with Marcos Ambrose being fastest in Nationwide and AJ Allmendinger being fastest in Cup. Saturday featured qualifying for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series along with the Nationwide Series Zippo 200. In Nationwide qualifying the Penske Fords of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano claimed the front row, followed by Kyle Busch and Marcos Ambrose. Sprint Cup qualifying ended with Jeff Gordon and Marcos Ambrose on the front row with Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick occupying the second row. The afternoon featured the Nationwide Series Zippo 200 race. Kyle Busch and Marcos Ambrose made contact early into the race at the inner loop. Both drivers made quick recoveries and went on to battle for the win with Marcos Ambrose taking the victory in the Zippo 200. It would be his 5th victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Chase Elliott finished in the 6th position extending his points lead over fellow JR Motorsports driver Regan Smith to 12 points. We then moved our attention to Sunday. Under the cloud of the Kevin Ward Jr/Tony Stewart situation we had the Cheez-it 355 at the Glen to run. Gordon and Ambrose lead the field to green for 90 scheduled laps. Kevin Harvick had to pit on lap 1 to remove a loose weight bag from the car. On lap 11 we went under the first caution for Cole Whitt going hard into the tire barrier outside turn 1. On lap 52, Jeff Gordon, who lead most of the race to that point lost power in the car and had to coast around to pit road, leading to the second caution of the day. The race was on pace to finish in record time until lap 57 when Ryan Newman got turned sideways and collided with the Armco and tire barrier. He then ended up back in traffic, where he made contact with Michael McDowell who was sent backwards at an awkward angle into the Armco and fence. NASCAR had to place the field under the red flag to make repairs to the Armco barrier. After about and hour and a half the field went back to green. On lap 88 Denny Hamlin made contact with the sand barrels at the entrance to pit road, this once again brought out the red flag and the caution laps lead to another green-white-checkered finish. The action packed finish saw Marcos Ambrose battle with AJ Allmendinger. Allmendinger ended up winning the Cheez-it 355 at the Glen, it was his first career win and the first win for JTG Daugherty Racing. The checkered flag marked a close to a very action packed weekend from Watkins Glen International.