Indycar Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen Preview and Writer's Picks

The IZOD Indycar Series returns to road and street course action over the holiday weekend. The drivers will take on the challenge of the Watkins Glen International Raceway.

This weekend will mark the start of the second half of the road and street portion of the 2010 season, as the IZOD Indycar Series will have five more road and street courses before declaring a champion for the twistie portion of the schedule.

The name of the road and street course trophy will be announced this weekend after it was previously announced the oval champion trophy was named after Indycar legend AJ Foyt.

Last year, Watkins Glen featured the only victory of the season for a non-Penske or Ganassi car. Justin Wilson scored the first victory in the nearly 25-year career for Dale Coyne Racing.

Wilson held off Ryan Briscoe by over 4 seconds in 2009. Wilson has since switched to Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, where he will attempt to gather the team's first win since the 2000 season at the Walt Disney World Speedway. Joining Wilson this weekend will be open wheel veteran Paul Tracy, who will be running in place of the injured Mike Conway. Tracy will be sponsored by Honda Indy Toronto and Motegi Racing.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was granted a stay of execution, as Andretti Autosport announced he will run at the Glen. No sponsorship has been announced, but Hunter-Reay is currently seventh in the standings with great experience on the road and street courses. Hunter-Reay drove to victory at the Glen in 2008 for Rahal Letterman Racing in his first season in the IZOD Indycar Series.

An additional Andretti Autosport car will be participating to round out the field at twenty five for the weekend. Irish A1GP champion Adam Carroll will be joining the team for the first time this season, driving the No. 27 car sponsored by Boost Mobile. Carroll raced with Marco Andretti in A1GP, where team owner Michael Andretti saw immediate potential in the young man.

Watkins Glen is a 3.4 mile, 11 turn road course that has been in place for over 50 years. The Glen saw Formula 1 cars run at the complex during the 60's and 70's. The IZOD Indycar Series began racing at the track in 2005. Scott Dixon won the first three races, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay and Justin Wilson last year.

The course is built with long corners where the drivers will carry speed instead of the sharp braking zones famous at some courses. There are two main passing areas however. AJ Foyt and ABC Supply racer Vitor Meira describes the best places to pass, "Definately turn 1, no doubt about it.  It's the only hard braking area after a long straight.  Turn 8, which is the second gear hairpin turn--those are the best places." Watkins Glen also features passing throughout the track, as drivers are able to pass coming out of turns instead of heading into them.

The race will be broadcast live on ABC national television at 3:30 pm on Independence Day, July 4th. The drivers hope to provide plenty of fireworks on the track before American's head to the fields and streets to light off their own. With Canadian Paul Tracy in the mix, fireworks are sure to happen at some point on the weekend.

So without much futher ado... this weeks Writer's Picks!

Chad Smith:

First to Crash : Mario Moraes
Just a hunch, it’s hard to call these for road/street races; anything can happen.

Dark Horse : Marco Andretti
Marco has finished 5th the last three years in a row here. He has never started worse than 8th, and he will continue to ride this momentum wave with Andretti Autosport.

3rd Place : Justin Wilson
Last year’s winner will once again be up front most of the day, hopefully out of harm’s way. He has started in second in both races here, and we expect him to perform at one of his better tracks on the schedule.

2nd Place : Scott Dixon
Check these stats out; in the last five races here, Scott has three wins, a third place finish, and has never started worse than fourth in those five years. He will be up front for the most of the day.

Race Winner : Ryan Briscoe
He has finished second and third here, and has had the pole the last two years. Look for Briscoe to be up front early and often, and he will be there in the end.

Christopher Leone:  Chris will be live at the Glen this weekend, be sure to follow his reports on Bleacher Report, openwheelamerica.blogspot.com, and follow him on twitter @christopherlion

Victory : Will Power. Despite missing this event last year, he’s been the series’ best road course driver. Penske cars have started up front all five times this race has been held, why break that streak now?

2nd : Scott Dixon. He won the first three events here, and it’s about time he snags a road course victory this season.

3rd : Justin Wilson. He’ll be strong in defense of his 2009 victory, but sometimes you just need the perfect combination to pull it off. DRR has been better overall, but the magic isn’t quite the same, I don’t think.

Dark horse : Ryan Hunter-Reay, if only because we don’t know that he’ll be as strong as usual with an underfunded Andretti car. Will RHR take a backseat to Adam Carroll this weekend?

First to crash : Paul Tracy. Just a hunch.

Ryan Worden

Victory:   The Iceman cometh. Ok, I'm a big Scott Dixon fan, and 3 out of the 5 wins at Watkins has gotta make him some kind of favorite. He is certainly my favorite this weekend to get Chip Ganassi back into victory lane.

2nd : Ryan Briscoe. Briscoe has had an up and down year to this point, but he is still in the hunt. He was my pick at the beginning of the year to win the championship, so this is a very selfish pick on my part.

3rd: Ryan Hunter-Reay. Another selfish pick for me this week. I am on vacation, so I might be thinking more with my toes in the sand brain than my ethanol fueled one. Hunter-Reay is my favorite in the series, and his program is running on fumes at the moment. Another big weekend for him will hopefully attract some more sponsorship and allow him to run the full season.

Dark Horse : Rafa Matos. Matos has had some bad luck and commited some bad driving this season. He is always fast, though. I am looking for Matos to put that together this weekend and bring home a top five finish.

First to Crash : I would usually pick Milka, but she'll be parked long before she crashes, if race control even allows her to run her ceremonial parade laps before getting in the way of other cars. So, my real pick will basically be a shot in the dark and I will go with EJ Viso. Main reason? KV Racing wrecks at least two cars every race. I don't know where they are even getting parts at this point because their equipment is torn up. Good luck to them, but I'm guessing this trend does not end.

Control Pick: Serving as Control this weekend... my mom... last Indycar race she saw... 1995 Indy 500 qualifying.  When Little Al didn't make it, she swore off of Indycar and I gained a seat at the 500.

First: Paul Tracy. His name is the only one that was racing last I watched this.

Second: Helio Castroneves. I saw him on Dancing with the Stars and watched his tax trial. Twinkletoes can move.

Third: Danica Patrick. I saw her in NASCAR last week. If she is doing that bad in NASCAR, she has to be suceeding in Indycar, right?

Dark Horse : Adam Carroll. He's a good Irish bloke... I'll take it.

First to Crash : Marco Andretti. I was an Unser fan, which means I am anti-Andretti.