IN THE 2024 GO BOWLING AT THE GLEN, CHRIS BUESCHER PASSED SHANE VAN GISBERGEN ON THE FINAL LAP TO WIN – MOTORSPORT AMERICA PHOTO
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
Friday, August 8 – ARCA Menards Series, 2 p.m. ET
Friday, August 8 – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 5 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, August 9 – NASCAR Xfinity Series, 3 p.m. ET (CW)
Sunday, August 10 – NASCAR Cup Series, 2 p.m. ET (USA)
When NASCAR came to Watkins Glen International a year ago, it marked the
second race of the Cup Series playoffs. That’s not the case this year
as the event returns to the regular season with all three major touring
series in action. Ford’s Chris Buescher is the defending winner after
registering his first road course victory in the Cup Series a year ago
at The Glen.
A GLEN REPEAT FOR BUESCHER?
Chris Buescher took advantage of a mistake by Shane Van Gisbergen on the
final lap to pass him and win last year’s Go Bowling at the Glen,
giving Ford its fourth straight NASCAR Cup Series victory. The race came
down to an overtime restart that saw Van Gisbergen get past Buescher
after a physical turn one. He held that advantage all the way until the
two cars got to the track’s iconic “Bus Stop” corner on the final
lap, but that’s when Van Gisbergen clipped the inside retaining
barrier and slowed his momentum enough to allow Buescher to squeeze to
his inside and make the decisive pass. For Buescher, it marked his first
Cup Series triumph on a road course.
LOGANO AT THE GLEN
Joey Logano comes into this weekend with seven career top-10 NASCAR Cup
Series finishes at Watkins Glen International, including a victory in
2015. That win made him the first driver to sweep a race weekend at the
track after he won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race the day before. In
addition, it marked Roger Penske’s first Cup victory at the historic
track.
KESELOWSKI AND CINDRIC AT WGI
Brad Keselowski and Austin Cindric have also been to Victory Lane at
Watkins Glen International with both getting their checkered flags in
the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Keselowski, who has three second-place
finishes and one third on the Cup side, posted his victory in 2013 while
Cindric passed AJ Allmendinger with two laps to go for his win in 2019.
Keselowski will also have a chance to extend his 2025 top-five streak to
three races.
BLANEY’S STRONG FORM
For the first time in 2025, Ryan Blaney has secured top-ten finishes in
three consecutive races, scoring 8th and 7th place finishes at Dover and
Indianapolis before improving further to a 4th place finish at Iowa last
weekend. His top-five finish at Iowa marked his eighth of 2025, leading
all Ford drivers. This run has also propelled him to seventh place in
the points.
RYAN PREECE: “I think the road courses have been really good for us. I
feel really confident in what we got there, and I think we’re going to
be just fine. We’ve been just trying to find a good work ethic, and
find what it takes to run well there. Going to Watkins Glen is always
fun.”
CHRIS BUESCHER: “We had a really good car at Watkins Glen that took a
while to get going. Our long run speed was really the perk there, and
the way the race played out, our long run speed was very strong. We had
some good strategies as well and with the handful of restarts we were
still able to go toe for toe there. We’ve seen some separation between
short and long run speed at some tracks, and The Glen was probably the
largest offset last year. I don’t know if that’ll be the case this
year, and also, we don’t really want it to be that large. We need to
figure out how to fire off a little bit better, and that’s probably
our bigger focus right now.”
ZANE SMITH: “I’m looking forward to Watkins Glen for sure and it’s
just a really fun road course. I’m hoping for some good weather and we
had a fast car that was able to run well last year.”
CLASSIC FINISH
One of the all-time classic finishes at Watkins Glen International came
when Marcos Ambrose went slip sliding away on the final lap, but still
resulted in him winning the NASCAR Cup Series race for the second
straight time on August 12, 2012. In a race that had more twists and
turns over the final three laps than many can remember in recent years,
Ambrose was the one who survived a massive streak of oil that had been
laid down on the track, allowing him to pass Kyle Busch and Brad
Keselowski for Ford’s third win of the season. Busch appeared to be
headed toward victory, but as he came into turn one on the final lap, he
slipped in some oil and got loose. Keselowski came up from behind and
hit Busch, sending him spinning off the track. A battle between Ambrose
and Keselowski ensued from that point with both drivers trying to avoid
the slickness that had covered the course. Ambrose followed Keselowski
through the grass at one point, but was able to get by in the
treacherous carousel when Keselowski slid one final time.
THREE STRAIGHT
Mark Martin became the first driver to win three straight NASCAR Cup
Series races at Watkins Glen International, and he capped that streak on
Aug. 13, 1995 after passing Wally Dallenbach, Jr. on lap 84 of the
90-lap event. Martin, who led a race-high 61 circuits overall, held off
the road racing specialist to win by one second. That victory completed
a three-year run that saw him not only sit on the pole every time but
lead 183-of-270 laps (68%).
MAYER GOING FOR SECOND GLEN WIN
After taking his first victory of the season last week at Iowa Speedway,
Sam Mayer now has eight career NASCAR Xfinity Series victories and one
of them came at Watkins Glen International in 2023. The overtime win
was his second in four weeks after capturing the first victory of his
career at Road America. Overall, Mayer has won four times on road
courses with a pair of triumphs on the Charlotte Roval being his other
two.
WELCOME BACK
This year will mark the seventh all-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
race at The Glen and the first since 2021. The track hosted one race
per year from 1996-2000 and included Ford wins by Joe Ruttman (1998) and
Greg Biffle (2000) before returning to the schedule four years ago.
This weekend’s event comes at a particularly crucial time as it marks
the next-to-last race in the regular season. The 10-driver field will
be set next week at Daytona International Speedway.
LAST TIME OUT
Layne Riggs led 160 of 200 laps in the last NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series race where he swept the stages and pulled off a commanding win at
Indianapolis Raceway Park. Riggs took his second win of the season and
finished in the top spot by nearly two seconds after leading most of the
way from taking the lead on lap 21. Riggs’s win at IRP was his second
of the season as he solidified his third-place position in the
standings.
BUESCHER’S TRUCK DEBUT
Chris Buescher will make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at
Watkins Glen this weekend driving the No. 66 Ford F-150 for ThorSport
Racing. Buescher is the reigning winner in the NASCAR Cup Series at
Watkins Glen, and has top ten finishes in each of his last three
appearances at the track. It is Buescher’s first appearance in NASCAR
in a non-Cup Series division since 2015.
FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS AT WATKINS GLEN
1965 – Marvin Panch
1993 – Mark Martin
1994 – Mark Martin
1995 – Mark Martin
1995 – Mark Martin
1996 – Geoffrey Bodine
2011 – Marcos Ambrose
2012 – Marcos Ambrose
2015 – Joey Logano
2024 – Chris Buescher
FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS AT WATKINS GLEN
1993 – Bill Elliott
2008 – Marcos Ambrose
2012 – Carl Edwards
2013 – Brad Keselowski
2014 – Marcos Ambrose
2015 – Joey Logano
2016 – Joey Logano
2018 – Joey Logano
2019 – Austin Cindric
FORD NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT WATKINS GLEN
1998 – Joe Ruttman
2000 – Greg Biffle
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