Watkins Glen takeaways: The trouble with appreciating greatness, win-and-in drivers and more

New York Times

a day ago

Álex Palou smiled as he popped into the frame of a Zoom call, then took a few bites of a post-championship snack before answering some questions from The Athletic.
A couple hours earlier, Palou had finished third at Portland International Raceway to clinch the IndyCar series title — his fourth in five years — with two races still remaining this season.
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So we had to know: With the championship wrapped, what was Palou's motivation to keep racing hard in the final two events?
The question was a bit tongue-in-cheek. NASCAR has been embroiled in a debate over how its championship is decided, with roughly half of the fan base pushing for a return to a full-season points format. But others within NASCAR are fearful of a driver clinching early and rendering the final races irrelevant, which seems to be the problem IndyCar is faced with now.
Earlier this weekend, Palou decisively said he is not interested in any talk of playoffs in IndyCar. So what's his case for why the final races matter after he has already clinched the title?
'Although we race for the championship and that's our ultimate goal, what I love about this sport is not the championship,' Palou explained. 'What I love is going every single weekend, fighting against somebody else trying to do the same thing we do, trying to get better cars, better driving techniques and just trying to beat everybody.
'That's what motivates me: The opportunity each race weekend to win and be the best.'
It sounds so simple, but that's what seems to have gotten lost in NASCAR at times. There's so much focus on NASCAR's playoffs that after Shane van Gisbergen's dominant victory at Watkins Glen on Sunday, he answered questions yet again about Round 1 of the playoffs and whether he can win at the Charlotte Roval in Round 2 — a constant theme since his first win of the season in Mexico City.
In reality, van Gisbergen is 25th in the point standings and isn't going to win the championship. He's a rookie who still needs a lot of work to be competitive on ovals. So while the discussion of his Round 3 prospects are a talking point for the weekly playoff conversation, it can also come at the expense of pure appreciation for his remarkable four straight road course wins.
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On the other hand, playoff system proponents argue a postseason format keeps viewers engaged and motivated to watch longer into the year. Palou's third straight IndyCar title felt inevitable after he won five of the first six races; he has since added three more victories and has 11 podium finishes in 15 races this season, so it's doubtful that lack of drama pulls in many viewers beyond the hardcore fan base.
And that's a shame in itself, because Palou is establishing himself as one of the best ever — and is now the youngest four-time series champion in IndyCar history at age 28. NASCAR has been there before when it comes to struggling to appreciate greatness; Jimmie Johnson's five straight titles as the sport's popularity dipped seemed to make some in the stock car world allergic to the concept.
That's not the only similarity between the series. Both now have spec cars, although IndyCar's current model long preceded the Next Gen and isn't the sort of talking point it is in NASCAR. And in Palou's eyes, having spec cars only makes his victories more satisfying.
'Although it's the same car, you can prepare it better, adjust stuff better, do all the details better,' Palou said. '(Chip Ganassi Racing) puts so much work into the car that it would be unfair to say I drive the exact same car as everybody else. But we don't have different parts on the car, so it makes it feel more special.'
The unusual circumstances of van Gisbergen's arrival into the Cup Series — at a time when there are three times as many road courses as there were a decade ago — has opened the door for him to pile up victories like no rookie in the Modern Era.
By winning for the fourth time this season, van Gisbergen broke a tie with Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson for the most wins as a Cup Series rookie. Some would then argue, 'OK, but Carl Edwards would have been classified as a rookie by today's standards in 2005 and won four races that year!'
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Hey, that's fair. But there's a counter to that as well: van Gisbergen has made it to five career Cup Series wins faster than anyone else in the Modern Era (38 starts).
Yes, this is all made possible by the amount of opportunities he gets per season compared to Jeff Gordon and drivers of that era. But it's not like other drivers such as AJ Allmendinger couldn't have done this in the last few years; only van Gisbergen has. Now he needs just four more Cup wins to tie Gordon for the all-time lead for road courses — and he's won four this season alone.
And to do all of this in equal cars while posting margins of victory in the double digits? It's truly something special that we may not see again from anyone, at least anytime soon.
Setting himself up for playoff success. 💪 pic.twitter.com/tPd5a4vSSG
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 10, 2025
With two races remaining until the NASCAR playoff field is set, most of the storylines are about who has yet to secure a berth. Can Ryan Preece or Chris Buescher point their way in? Will Alex Bowman survive the cut?
But looking at some of those drivers who have already locked into the field with one victory, it's apparent how their seasons could have been much different.
For example: Since winning at Texas Motor Speedway on May 4, defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano has only one finish better than ninth in 13 races (fourth place at Nashville). He is now behind Preece in points and would be below the cutoff line without that Texas victory.
Another playoff qualifier in the same situation? Surprisingly, it's Ross Chastain. The Trackhouse driver was eighth in the standings as recently as last month, but has since tumbled to 14th in points and would not be in the playoff field without his Coca-Cola 600 win in late May.
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Similarly, Austin Cindric would be far out of contention if he had not won Talladega. Cindric is behind Kyle Busch in the standings and has zero — yes, zero! — single-digit finishes since that April victory (14 races).
The same goes for Josh Berry, as you probably figured if you've been following his season. The surprise Las Vegas winner from March is now 24th in the standings — only four points ahead of van Gisbergen and behind John Hunter Nemechek — and has only one top-10 finish in 19 races since the Vegas victory.
None of those drivers appear to be headed toward a top 10 finish in the regular-season point standings, meaning their races are all about playoff points or bust. And for the most part this summer, it's been bust.
Chase Elliott and the No. 9 team picked a bad day to have a bad day.
Elliott lost a painful 24 points in the standings to teammate William Byron and now trails the regular-season points leader by 42 with just two races remaining — this after he had overcome a 112-point deficit following Michigan to rally and snatch the points lead away after Dover, a span of just six races.
But after holding the points lead for two weeks, Elliott has given up 58 points to Byron in just three races — and on Sunday had his impressive top-20 streak come to an end. If you missed it, Elliott had not finished outside the top 20 all season; in fact, it had been since last October at Las Vegas since his last such result (a span of 26 races).
Byron now seems in control after a fourth-place finish on Sunday, which comes on the heels of his Iowa win. Just like that, he has back-to-back top-five finishes for the first time in two months while Elliott has suddenly gone three races without a top-10.
The goal now for Elliott must be to stay within this same range after Saturday night's race at Richmond, then hope Byron finds trouble in the regular-season finale at Daytona while Elliott avoids the Big One.
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Otherwise, his post-Michigan comeback and the quest for the 15 playoff points awarded to the regular-season champion will have come up short.
Quick guess: Who leads the Cup Series in average finish over the last four races?
Would you have guessed … Bubba Wallace? Yep, Wallace has a 5.5 average finish and four straight top-10s — a stretch that includes his Indianapolis win and the improbable rally from a broken toe link at Iowa.
This is the first time Wallace has put together four consecutive top-10s since July/August 2022; he has never put together five straight top-10s in his career, but can do so if he backs up his fourth-place run from last year's Richmond race this weekend.
Ryan Blaney is the only other driver in the Cup Series to be carrying a current streak of four straight top-10s, but the hottest driver in the Cup Series continues to be Chase Briscoe. He now has four top-five finishes in the last five races and has outscored the next-closest driver (the points leader Byron) by 12 points during that stretch.
(Top photo of Shane van Gisbergen celebrating his win Sunday: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
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