{"id":62889,"date":"2025-08-06T15:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/62889\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T15:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:32:16","slug":"good-news-bad-news-for-nascar-cup-drivers-ahead-of-watkins-glen-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/62889\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news, bad news for NASCAR Cup drivers ahead of Watkins Glen weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the third time in the last six races, the NASCAR Cup Series will compete on a road course.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s race at Watkins Glen (coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on USA Network) is the fifth and final road course race of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Shane van Gisbergen seeks his fourth consecutive road course victory. He also looks to make amends for losing last year\u2019s race at Watkins Glen on the last lap.<\/p>\n

With some help from Racing Insights, here is a look at the good news and bad news for Cup teams heading into the race on the 2.45-mile road course in New York.<\/p>\n

23XI Racing \u2014 Good news: Bubba Wallace has scored three consecutive top-10 finishes, including his win at Indianapolis. \u2026 Tyler Reddick\u2019s 15 top-10 finishes on road courses in the Next Gen era is tied with Chris Buescher for most among all drivers. \u2026 Reddick has scored 138 points in road course races this season, second only to Shane van Gisbergen\u2019s 194 points. Bad news: Riley Herbst has one top-20 finish in the last 12 races.<\/p>\n

Front Row Motorsports \u2014 Good news: Zane Smith finished fifth at Watkins Glen last year. \u2026 Todd Gilliland has three top 10s in the last eight road course races. Bad news: Noah Gragson\u2019s 29th-place result at Iowa was his best finish in the last five races. \u2026 Gragson has fourth finishes of 30th or worse in the last five road course races. \u2026 Smith has six finishes of 22nd or worse in the last eight races.<\/p>\n

Haas Factory Team \u2014 Good news: Cole Custer\u2019s only top-10 finish this season came on the road course at Mexico City when he placed eighth. Bad News: Custer has not started better than 23rd on a road course this season. \u2026 Custer has not scored any stage points since Martinsville in the spring.<\/p>\n

Hendrick Motorsports \u2014 Good news: William Byron took back the points lead from teammate Chase Elliott after winning at Iowa. \u2026 Byron has scored a series-high 230 stage points (next is Ryan Blaney at 191 stage points). \u2026 Byron has eight top 10s, including two wins, in the last 11 road course starts. \u2026 Elliott leads all drivers with 11 top-five finishes on road courses in the Next Gen era. \u2026 Elliott has finished in the top five in 56% of his road course starts. \u2026 The organization has won five of the last six races at Watkins Glen, getting two wins each from Elliott and Kyle Larson and one from Byron. \u2026 Alex Bowman\u2019s 13 top-10 finishes this season trails only Larson, who has 14 top 10s to lead the series. \u2026 Bowman has six top-10 results in the last eight races. \u2026 Hendrick Motorsports is the only organization to have at least one car finish in the top 10 in all 23 races this year. Bad news: Larson has finished 32nd or worse in three of the four road course events this season. \u2026 All seven of Elliott\u2019s road course wins came before the Next Gen car in 2022.<\/p>\n

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\"Syndication:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Crew chief Rudy Fugle said last week on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that the No. 24 team was \u201cstarving\u201d for a win.<\/p>\n

Hyak Motorsports \u2014 Good news: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has finished in the top 15 in three of the last five Watkins Glen races. Bad news: Stenhouse has one top-20 finish in the last eight races. \u2026 Stenhouse has not started better than 30th in the last nine races. \u2026 Stenhouse has four finishes of 27th or worse in the last six road course races.<\/p>\n

Joe Gibbs Racing \u2014 Good news: Chase Briscoe has finished second in three of the last four races (Sonoma, Dover and Iowa). \u2026 Christopher Bell has three top-two finishes in the last five road course races. \u2026 Bell, who won at COTA in March, is the only driver to have won a Cup road course race this season other than Shane van Gisbergen\u2026 Bell has three top 10s in four Watkins Glen starts. \u2026 Bell ranks first in restarts on road courses this season. … Nine of Denny Hamlin\u2019s 21 career top-10 finishes on road courses have come at Watkins Glen. \u2026 Ty Gibbs has five top-five finishes in his last 11 starts on road courses. \u2026 Gibbs has 12 top-10 starts in the last 15 races. Bad news: Bell\u2019s average finish in the last nine races is 15.2 (his average finish in the first 14 races of the season was 10.8).<\/p>\n

Kaulig Racing \u2014 Good news: AJ Allmendinger has two top-five finishes in the last three races at Watkins Glen. \u2026 Allmendinger\u2019s average finish of 10.8 at Watkins Glen is his best among active tracks. \u2026 Allmendinger has six finishes of sixth or better in his last 11 Cup starts on road courses. … Allmendinger ranks second in the series in passing and restarts on road courses. Bad news: Ty Dillon has not placed better than 15th in 29 Cup road course starts.<\/p>\n

Legacy Motor Club \u2014 Good news: John Hunter Nemechek has three top-15 finishes in the last five races. \u2026 Nemechek placed sixth at Mexico City, his best finish in a Cup road course race. \u2026 Erik Jones\u2019 16th-place result at Iowa snapped a a streak of four consecutive finishes of 25th or worse. Bad news: Jones placed 27th or worse in three of the last four Watkins Glen races. \u2026 Jones has no top-10 finishes in the last 16 road course races.<\/p>\n

Richard Childress Racing \u2014 Good news: Both of Kyle Busch\u2019s top-five finishes this season have come on road courses (5th at COTA and 5th at Chicago Street Race). \u2026 Austin Dillon placed 10th last week at Iowa for his first top 10 since early May. Bad news: The organization has not led a lap in the last nine races. \u2026 Busch has not led a lap in the last 11 races. \u2026 Dillon has never placed better than 15th in 10 Cup starts at Watkins Glen.<\/p>\n

Rick Ware Racing \u2014 Good news: Cody Ware\u2019s most recent top-30 finish was 26th at Chicago Street Race last month. Bad news: Ware has four consecutive finishes of 32nd or worse.<\/p>\n

RFK Racing \u2014 Good news: Brad Keselowski has seven top-10 finishes in the last 11 races after having no top 10s in the first 12 races of the year. \u2026 Chris Buescher, who holds the final playoff spot, won last year\u2019s race at Watkins Glen. \u2026 Buescher is the only driver to finish in the top 10 in all three races at Watkins Glen in the Next Gen era. \u2026 Fifteen of Buescher\u2019s 52 top-10 finishes in the Next Gen era (28.8%) have come on road courses. \u2026 Ryan Preece, the first driver below the cutline, has scored back-to-back top-five finishes. \u2026 Preece was ninth at Watkins Glen last year for his best result there in four starts. Bad news: Keselowski has not had a top-10 finish in his last 19 starts on road courses.<\/p>\n

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\"NASCAR:<\/p>\n

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Ryan Preece trails RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher by 23 points heading into Sunday\u2019s race at Watkins Glen on USA Network.<\/p>\n

Spire Motorsports \u2014 Good news: Michael McDowell has two top-five finishes in the four road course races this season. \u2026 McDowell has two top 10s in the last three races at Watkins Glen. \u2026 Spire Motorsports placed all three of its cars in the top 10 last year at Watkins Glen, led by Carson Hocevar\u2019s third-place finish. Bad news: Justin Haley has not finished better than 18th in four Cup starts at Watkins Glen. \u2026 Hocevar has placed 32nd or worse in the last three Cup road course races.<\/p>\n

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\"NASCAR<\/p>\n

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Multiple Cup drivers will do double duty this weekend at Watkins Glen International. <\/p>\n

Team Penske \u2014 Good news: This weekend Joey Logano will become the 13th driver in NASCAR history to make 600 consecutive Cup starts. \u2026 Ryan Blaney has scored three top 10s in a row, the first time he\u2019s done that this season. Bad news: Logano has not finished better than ninth in the last nine races. \u2026 Logano\u2019s lone road course Cup win came in 2015 at Watkins Glen. \u2026 Logano has not led a lap in the last five races, his longest drought of the season. \u2026 Austin Cindric has only one top-10 finish since his win at Talladega in April.<\/p>\n

Trackhouse Racing \u2014 Good news: Shane van Gisbergen goes for his fourth consecutive road course victory after wins at Mexico City, Chicago Street Race and Sonoma. \u2026 Only Jeff Gordon (six consecutive road course wins) and Chase Elliott (four) have won at least four in a row. \u2026 van Gisbergen also won the pole for each of the last three road course races. \u2026 van Gisbergen has scored six consecutive top 10s on road courses, the longest active streak in the series. \u2026 van Gisbergen ranks first in speed, long run and passing on road courses this season. \u2026 Ross Chastain won the pole and finished fourth at Watkins Glen last year. \u2026 Connor Zilisch will make his fourth start of the season, driving the No. 87 car. \u2026 Zilisch won from the pole in both the ARCA and Xfinity races last year at Watkins Glen. Bad news: Daniel Suarez has one finish better than 25th in the last six races. \u2026 Suarez has one top-10 finish in the last 16 road course races. \u2026 Chastain has five finishes of 24th or worse in the last seven races.<\/p>\n

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\"NASCAR<\/p>\n

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Chris Buescher passed Shane van Gisbergen on the final lap to win last year\u2019s race on the New York road course. <\/p>\n

Wood Brothers Racing \u2014 Good news: Josh Berry\u2019s 13th-place finish at Sonoma last month was his best result in nine Cup road course starts. Bad news: Berry has finished 22nd or worse in six of the last 10 races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the third time in the last six races, the NASCAR Cup Series will compete on a road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[425,99],"class_list":["post-62889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}