With race cars zooming down the long, fast frontstretch at the Glen International crest a rise at the start-finish line, and storm downhill toward Turn 1. While the laps add up, the track surface gets more and more slick. With so much of the car’s weight tipped toward the front, the rear tires lock up in a condition drivers call “axle hop.” The result, out-of-control slide past the first turn and into the paved runoff area, and a lost chance at victory if it occurs to the leader late in the race.
It happens to the best of them. In 2007, Jeff Gordon overran Turn 1 at Watkins Glen with two laps go, handing the final lap and win to Tony Stewart. Six years earlier, Dale Jarrett saw a two-second lead disappeared when his car missed the first turn and got stuck in the gravel trap that lurked outside the corner until it was removed in late 2005. On the entire 2.45-mile road course, there’s not a turn more difficult than that big, downhill right-hander that opens every lap.
“It’s tough to hit your marks lap after lap,” Kurt Busch said, “because you’re going downhill, and the car is right on that ragged edge of spinning out each time.”
And now, add the element of double-file restarts. The recent NASCAR rule change placing lead-lap cars beside each other on restarts has led to frantic, almost chaotic action at the end of some races. The rain-delayed event at Pocono Raceway on Monday, where cars banged four-wide after several drivers chose to stay out and pin the leaders back in the field, particularly stoked tempers and frayed nerves.
It also begs the question of what might happen in Sunday’s Cup event at Watkins Glen, where Turn 1 is tough enough for cars running by themselves — much less for multiple drivers cramming the front and leaning on one another for position.
“I think it’s going to be really intense here,” Gordon said.
Yet opinion among drivers is split on exactly how the double-file restarts may be on an already treacherous part of the race track. The removal of the gravel trap, which didn’t just cost cars position but often took them out of the race altogether, clearly increases the margin for error.
With the paved runoff area, Turn 1 is now easily wide enough to accommodate more than one vehicle. Unlike the other Cup road course, Infineon Raceway — where cars are almost forced into a single file — Watkins Glen is wide enough in many places to accommodate side-by-side racing.
“This track is very conducive to having double-file restarts and not getting people in trouble trying to get filed down to one lane,” Stewart said, a four-time winner at Watkins Glen. “So I think it should make it exciting for this weekend. I think this will be a perfect place for it.”
But even with all that room, drivers fighting for the same position can still tangle — as Gordon and Stewart learned in 2000, and Juan Montoya and Kevin Harvick discovered two years ago. Entering Turn 1, drivers don’t need any help. The pavement in that area is rippled from years of cars charging hard into the corner, Gordon said, and drivers rolling over it feel like they’re traversing bumps in the road. Watkins Glen is also a place where competitors have to be aggressive, driving deep into braking zones and trying to get every little bit they can. In Turn 1, some drivers don’t make it.
“Some guys will misjudge the braking and overshoot, and other guys will be more aggressive and take it three-wide and four-wide,” said Gordon, a four time winner. “There’s a lot of crazy stuff that happens down in Turn 1, and I guarantee that if you’re leading the race here this weekend, a caution is the last thing you want to see. I don’t know which lane is going to be the preferred lane either, inside or out, because even though it’s a right-hand turn and you think you would want the inside, if a guy can hold on your outside, then he can carry that momentum off the corner. There are a lot of factors that Turn 1 is going to play at this race this weekend.”
Whether double-file restarts will be one of those factors is yet to be seen, but the odds are good given the impact the rule change has had on recent events. The hairy nature of Monday’s race at Pocono has drivers at Watkins Glen preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best.
“As of late, the last few weeks … as we’re getting more comfortable, it seems as if there are more risks taken on double-file restarts toward the ends of these races,” Busch said. “Some guys, they decided they were going to stay out, they have old tires, they’re banking on the competition running into one another so it creates more yellows. It’s become disturbing, just watching these restarts. Everybody’s running into each other. A car that was good all day long can have trouble getting back through the pack and getting a top-five finish.”
Carl Edwards was equally as emphatic. “Last week was awful,” he said. “… I’m hoping this week, this race goes as it has in the past, [and] there won’t be too many restarts. Those double-file restarts seem to breed more restarts. It could end up being a one- or two-lap sprint race at the end, so that could have a huge impact. I hope it doesn’t, but it could, and we’re prepared for that. I’m prepared for that.”
It happens to the best of them. In 2007, Jeff Gordon overran Turn 1 at Watkins Glen with two laps go, handing the final lap and win to Tony Stewart. Six years earlier, Dale Jarrett saw a two-second lead disappeared when his car missed the first turn and got stuck in the gravel trap that lurked outside the corner until it was removed in late 2005. On the entire 2.45-mile road course, there’s not a turn more difficult than that big, downhill right-hander that opens every lap.
“It’s tough to hit your marks lap after lap,” Kurt Busch said, “because you’re going downhill, and the car is right on that ragged edge of spinning out each time.”
And now, add the element of double-file restarts. The recent NASCAR rule change placing lead-lap cars beside each other on restarts has led to frantic, almost chaotic action at the end of some races. The rain-delayed event at Pocono Raceway on Monday, where cars banged four-wide after several drivers chose to stay out and pin the leaders back in the field, particularly stoked tempers and frayed nerves.
It also begs the question of what might happen in Sunday’s Cup event at Watkins Glen, where Turn 1 is tough enough for cars running by themselves — much less for multiple drivers cramming the front and leaning on one another for position.
“I think it’s going to be really intense here,” Gordon said.
Yet opinion among drivers is split on exactly how the double-file restarts may be on an already treacherous part of the race track. The removal of the gravel trap, which didn’t just cost cars position but often took them out of the race altogether, clearly increases the margin for error.
With the paved runoff area, Turn 1 is now easily wide enough to accommodate more than one vehicle. Unlike the other Cup road course, Infineon Raceway — where cars are almost forced into a single file — Watkins Glen is wide enough in many places to accommodate side-by-side racing.
“This track is very conducive to having double-file restarts and not getting people in trouble trying to get filed down to one lane,” Stewart said, a four-time winner at Watkins Glen. “So I think it should make it exciting for this weekend. I think this will be a perfect place for it.”
But even with all that room, drivers fighting for the same position can still tangle — as Gordon and Stewart learned in 2000, and Juan Montoya and Kevin Harvick discovered two years ago. Entering Turn 1, drivers don’t need any help. The pavement in that area is rippled from years of cars charging hard into the corner, Gordon said, and drivers rolling over it feel like they’re traversing bumps in the road. Watkins Glen is also a place where competitors have to be aggressive, driving deep into braking zones and trying to get every little bit they can. In Turn 1, some drivers don’t make it.
“Some guys will misjudge the braking and overshoot, and other guys will be more aggressive and take it three-wide and four-wide,” said Gordon, a four time winner. “There’s a lot of crazy stuff that happens down in Turn 1, and I guarantee that if you’re leading the race here this weekend, a caution is the last thing you want to see. I don’t know which lane is going to be the preferred lane either, inside or out, because even though it’s a right-hand turn and you think you would want the inside, if a guy can hold on your outside, then he can carry that momentum off the corner. There are a lot of factors that Turn 1 is going to play at this race this weekend.”
Whether double-file restarts will be one of those factors is yet to be seen, but the odds are good given the impact the rule change has had on recent events. The hairy nature of Monday’s race at Pocono has drivers at Watkins Glen preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best.
“As of late, the last few weeks … as we’re getting more comfortable, it seems as if there are more risks taken on double-file restarts toward the ends of these races,” Busch said. “Some guys, they decided they were going to stay out, they have old tires, they’re banking on the competition running into one another so it creates more yellows. It’s become disturbing, just watching these restarts. Everybody’s running into each other. A car that was good all day long can have trouble getting back through the pack and getting a top-five finish.”
Carl Edwards was equally as emphatic. “Last week was awful,” he said. “… I’m hoping this week, this race goes as it has in the past, [and] there won’t be too many restarts. Those double-file restarts seem to breed more restarts. It could end up being a one- or two-lap sprint race at the end, so that could have a huge impact. I hope it doesn’t, but it could, and we’re prepared for that. I’m prepared for that.”
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