NASCAR at Watkins Glen 2015: Start Time, Ticket Info, Lineup, TV Schedule, More
Kyle Busch and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series take a detour to the second road course of the season at Sunday's Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen International.
Busch didn't win and extend his streak to four races last week in Pocono—the checkered flag went to Matt Kenseth as he and others ran out of gas late—but he remains the talk of the Series as he pursues the 30th spot on the leaderboard and a spot in the Chase.
The weekend won't be kind to most who want a spot in the Chase, though. The Glen doesn't forgive mistakes. The road course isn't an event to miss, not this late in the year, or in general. Here's how and what to watch.
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Viewing Details
Where: Watkins Glen International
When: Sunday, August 9, at 2 p.m. ET
Watch: NBCSN
Live Stream: NBC Live Extra
Tickets: ScoreBig.com
Sprint Cup Standings
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 713 |
| 2 | Kevin Harvick | 780 |
| 3 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 717 |
| 4 | Matt Kenseth | 662 |
| 5 | Kurt Busch | 620 |
| 6 | Joey Logano | 734 |
| 7 | Martin Truex Jr. | 694 |
| 8 | Brad Keselowski | 681 |
| 9 | Denny Hamlin | 614 |
| 10 | Carl Edwards | 553 |
NASCAR at Pocono Lineup
| 47 | AJ Allmendinger |
| 9 | Marcos Ambrose |
| 41 | Kurt Busch |
| 42 | Kyle Larson |
| 99 | Carl Edwards |
| 22 | Joey Logano |
| 4 | Kevin Harvick |
| 16 | Greg Biffle |
| 20 | Matt Kenseth |
| 55 | Brian Vickers |
| 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr |
| 5 | Kasey Kahne |
| 78 | Martin Truex Jr |
| 1 | Jamie McMurray |
| 13 | Casey Mears |
| 3 | Austin Dillon |
| 51 | Justin Allgaier |
| 43 | Aric Almirola |
| 34 | David Ragan |
| 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr |
| 10 | Danica Patrick |
| 38 | David Gilliland |
| 36 | Reed Sorenson |
| 11 | Denny Hamlin |
| 32 | Boris Said |
| 77 | Nelson Piquet Jr |
| 15 | Clint Bowyer |
| 48 | Jimmie Johnson |
| 40 | Landon Cassill |
| 66 | Joe Nemechek |
| 7 | Michael Annett |
| 27 | Paul Menard |
| 33 | Alex Kennedy |
| 24 | Jeff Gordon |
| 2 | Brad Keselowski |
| 23 | Alex Bowman |
| 14 | Regan Smith |
| 98 | Josh Wise |
| 83 | Ryan Truex |
| 18 | Kyle Busch |
| 31 | Ryan Newman |
| 95 | Michael McDowell |
Drivers to Watch
Each week, much of the focus lands on Jeff Gordon's shoulders with this being his last season.
Each week, the question crops up—when is Gordon going to win his first race?
Pocono one week ago treated Gordon well. The top three ran out of gas late, helping him land a third-place finish. It was not only his fourth top 10 in his last five outings, but his best finish since April.
It's natural the lack of a win creates buzz about the odds Gordon suits up for another season. He made a point to quell it this week in a conversation with Don Coble of the Savannah Morning News:
"Right now, I don’t have any plans to. You have to understand it’s far more than just what maybe I would desire or want to do. It takes a team to do it. And that’s a total disruption to the organization to go do a one-off race. It’s not that it can’t be done.
I recognize the challenges that would come along with that and what it would do to our four teams competing for the wins and championships. So, I probably wouldn’t ask them to do that.
"
Besides, Gordon has plenty of time to score a win.
Granted, Gordon has finished worse than 30th his last two appearances in this event, but with him sitting just four spots above the Chase cutoff line and coming off one of this year's best performances, look for him to come out swinging.
Martin Truex Jr.
Martin Truex Jr. was one of those hurt late in what turned out to be an intriguing race last week.
Instead of making it back-to-back top-10 finishes (he finished fourth at The Brickyard) to put a streak of four iffy placements behind him, the Furniture Row Racing driver fell to 19th.
As a result, Truex lost two spots on the leaderboard. Completing the rare Pocono sweep would have been nice, but he doesn't have time to dwell on the late-season gaffe. He's now going into a race he's looked strong at with two top-13 finishes the past two years, including a third spot in 2013.
Truex still looks good from a Chase standpoint, but this is about form and positioning. Rebounding from an odd finish is key to mounting another strong streak and keeping his feel-good story alive.
Kyle Busch
It's hard to complain about Busch's 21st slot in Pocono last weekend. Ditto for the fuel management after the leader in front of him ran out of gas, giving him first place and a shot at a whopping fourth-straight win.
The feat didn't pan out and better management would have meant more points with a top-10 finish as he continues to look to keep his head above 30th, but, as they say, hindsight is 20-20.
Busch sits in 32nd place, and with the medical exemption after missing most of the season, he needs to climb a few more spots. ESPN Stats & Info provides a breakdown of his remaining season:
Things at The Glen don't look so encouraging, but keep in mind Busch fared pretty well at the season's first road course, Sonoma, where he grabbed his first win and kicked off this epic run of form.
Busch continues to dominate anything he touches right now and the conservative route doesn't seem the preferred course of action. In other words, he's miles and miles ahead of everyone else in terms of entertainment value and intrigue at The Glen this weekend.
Stats and info courtesy of ESPN.com unless otherwise specified.
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