What to watch for in today's NASCAR Cup race at Watkins Glen

NBC Sports

3 days ago

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — While Shane van Gisbergen seeks to win his fourth consecutive road course race of the season today at Watkins Glen, there are others who could thwart his attempt, including a former champion seeking his first victory of the season.
Coverage starts at 1:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
Here is what to watch for in today's race:
Can anyone beat SVG?
In an era of parity where there's so much data drivers can examine on their competitors, Shane van Gisbergen's three-race winning streak on road courses stands out.
So, how does he keep doing it?
'What I see with him is he looks like us on ovals,' said points leader William Byron, who won last weekend's race at Iowa. 'You know, he's just comfortable from lap one. He has a good understanding of what to achieve in his car. He's smooth. He's not sliding the tire to make speed, so he's not out there out of control. When he makes a good lap time, it's repeatable, and he learns from it. He makes it another good one.'
Dustin Long,
Van Gisbergen starts second today — the fourth consecutive road course race he's started on the front row.
Michael McDowell, who needs a win to make the playoffs, acknowledges van Gisbergen's talent but doesn't think he's unbeatable.
'I just don't think he's that far ahead,' said McDowell, who starts sixth today. 'I know everybody else does.'
Why?
'Because in Cup racing you're talking about a tenth of a second is the difference between first and fifth,' McDowell said. 'I just feel like it's small. Everything is just details and execution. He does a phenomenal job of all those things, but a lot of people come into these races beat. I don't get it. I don't understand it. Can't. How could you come to the race track feeling like you're already beat? Yeah, I just don't take that mindset.'
Is today the day for Kyle Busch?
Both of Kyle Busch's top-five finishes this season have come on road courses — he placed fifth at Circuit of the Americas and was fifth at the Chicago Street Race.
Busch, who has two Cup wins at Watkins Glen, starts today's race fifth. It has been 80 races since his last Cup victory. He needs a victory to make the playoffs.
Nate Ryan,
Saturday's qualifying effort was a nice bounce back after last week's struggles at Iowa. Busch crashed in practice and had to go to backup car. He placed 20th.
'Last was certainly difficult, obviously with losing the car in practice and all that,' crew chief Randall Burnett told NBC Sports on Saturday at Watkins Glen. 'It was going to be a struggle from then on the rest of the weekend. I didn't call a great race last weekend.
'We just had some things stacked against us, so we had some meetings about it, myself, Kyle, several of our people internally, we sat down and talked through some things and trying to figure out what we need to do better with communication on all of our parts.'
As for those talks this week, Burnett said: 'We're just talking about our communication in general, not anything based off of last weekend. Just how we're talking about the cars, how I'm making adjustments based off of what he's saying about the cars. Just trying to improve internally all together. Get him better, what he needs out of the car.'
Restarts
NASCAR moved the restart before the final turn instead of having it on the frontstretch. That's what the series has done at other road courses in an effort to prevent the field from stacking up in the first corner and creating the potential of a multi-car crash.
A key question is what lane does a driver want to be in for the restart. At many tracks, there is a preferred lane, but at Watkins Glen, that's not so, according to Christopher Bell.
'They each have their strengths,' said Bell, who ran in Friday's truck race. 'It's not a clear-cut lane winner. If you pick the right (lane), it's just mission critical to clear the guy on the left because … if you don't clear that guy, they get the side draft all the way down the straightaway. The outside lane or the left lane gets the side draft on the straightaway and then they're positioned into Turn 1. I don't think there's a clear-cut favorite.'
Looking for more
Road courses are not Denny Hamlin's forte — he has one win 56 road course starts — but today could be a meaningful day that could help him in the playoffs at the Charlotte Roval.
'I'm going to use what I learned, studying some of the better road course drivers, and I'm going to try to drive (Sunday) a little differently.
'It's very, very small, minute changes, but I came into the weekend I wanted to change two particular things about my race craft for (Sunday) when I get in traffic. So I will try to execute that. Wherever the results are, the results are, but I'm trying toward a bigger goal of getting better in the long term.'