{"id":417372,"date":"2026-05-08T04:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/417372\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T04:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:09:16","slug":"nascar-adds-watkins-glen-to-2027-chase-with-september-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/417372\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR adds Watkins Glen to 2027 Chase with September move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2229248958.jpg\" alt=\"NASCAR announces major Watkins Glen change\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShane van Gisbergen in the #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro. <\/p>\n<p>This year, NASCAR moved Watkins Glen from August to May in what will be a one-off for the stock car series.<\/p>\n<p>Watkins Glen track president Dawn Burlew announced on Friday that the event will move to September.<\/p>\n<p>According to the official NASCAR website, the September date will mean Watkins Glen forms part of the first few Chase races.<\/p>\n<p>Provided Shane van Gisbergen makes it into the top 16, the Trackhouse Racing driver stands to benefit from a race that\u2019s right in his wheelhouse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople actually really liked that recognition for The Glen as well as all our fans that come here,\u201d Burlew said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo being in [The Chase] going forward, I think they\u2019re going to be thrilled that we\u2019re at the first part of that and really kind of set the stage for the rest of the playoff season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo again, if we can be part of that and kick it off, there\u2019s no better place than to do it at The Glen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moving Watkins Glen to May raised eyebrows, especially for the colder temperatures and threat of rain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think what we\u2019ve done is our merchandise, we\u2019ve looked at it when we saw the date, and we said, \u2018OK, we need to shift our merchandise from all T-shirts and tank tops to long sleeves and things like that\u2019,\u201d Burlew said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut then again, we did some really cool stuff for Mother\u2019s Day with our merchandise, so we just took a whole different twist to it when we started getting ready and planning for this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re more celebrating just a different date, because it gave us a whole different way to plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of just doing traditional flowers, we did more mulch and tulips that my team planted last fall, which normally we wouldn\u2019t do, but we said, \u2018OK, that\u2019s something different\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we just embraced it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Van Gisbergen will race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Cup Series across the May 9-11 weekend at Watkins Glen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">For more of the latest NASCAR news and analysis, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/us\/tag\/nascar\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Speedcafe US<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/250635\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/250635.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane van Gisbergen in the #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro. This year, NASCAR moved Watkins Glen from August to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,216,213],"class_list":["post-417372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot3","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}