Stock Car Scoop: Was This the Best Road Course Race of the Next Gen Era?
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Stock Car Scoop: Was This the Best Road Course Race of the Next Gen Era?
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Term
tire and fuel strategy
This is the game plan for when to change tires and how to manage fuel. Teams decide how aggressively to drive based on how fast the tires wear out and how much gas they’ll need.
Term
caution
A caution is when the race slows down because something happened on the track. Everyone has to adjust their plans, especially when it comes to pitting and restarting.
Term
restart
A restart is when the race goes back to full speed after a caution. The order of cars at the restart can strongly affect who gets the best position next.
Term
pit
A pit stop is when the car pulls into the pits to get serviced—usually tires and fuel. When you pit (and how long you stay) can make or break your race.
Term
fuel saving
Fuel saving is when the team tells the driver to drive a bit more gently so the car uses less gas. The goal is to make sure there’s enough fuel to finish the race segment without needing an extra stop.
Term
locking the tires up
When the driver brakes too hard, the tires can stop turning and start sliding. That usually makes the car harder to control and can reduce stopping effectiveness.
Term
scanner
A scanner is a radio receiver that lets you listen to the team’s radio messages during the race. In this case, the speaker is hearing the calls between the driver and crew.
Concept
mixed signals
Mixed signals means the driver is getting confusing or conflicting instructions. If the team says one thing and then changes it quickly, it can throw off the driver’s timing and decisions.
Term
conserve
In racing, “conserve” means you don’t drive flat-out the whole time. You save your tires or fuel so the car still has good grip and speed later.
Term
under green
“Under green” means the race is still going at full speed, not slowed by a caution. Pit stops then cost more time, so teams have to plan carefully.
Term
flat tire
A “flat tire” means the tire goes low on air and doesn’t grip or roll correctly. In a race, it usually hurts speed a lot and can ruin your finish.
Term
lockup issues
“Lockup” means the brakes are so strong that a tire stops spinning and starts sliding. That can make the car harder to control and can slow you down more than you expect.
Concept
multi-car crash
A multi-car crash means more than one car gets caught up in the same wreck. It often starts with one car having trouble and then others get hit trying to avoid it.
Term
Armco barrier
An Armco barrier is a heavy steel guardrail around the track. If a car hits it, it usually means the crash was big and the car left the racing line.
Concept
road course
A road course is a type of race track with lots of turns, not just left turns like an oval. Driving technique and car setup matter a lot there.
Topic
fan voting formats (invert/segment voting)
They talk about how NASCAR lets fans vote and how that can change parts of the race. The hosts compare older fan-voting rules to what’s happening now.
Term
fan vote
A fan vote means NASCAR asks viewers to vote on something about the race. Here, fans are influencing how the event is arranged, not just watching it.
Term
all-star race
An all-star race is a special NASCAR event meant to feel like a highlight show. It’s supposed to be more “special” than a normal race week.
LIVE
Let's get started.
The word domination gets thrown around a lot in NASCAR Cup Series circles, but today was
pure and utter.
Domination Shane Van Gisburg and absolutely destroys the field in the go bowling at the
Glen, of course, at Watkins Glen International Speedway.
This is the stock car scoop.
I am host Eric Schneck here with this week's co-host, the esteemed Michael Finley.
Finley, what did you think of today's running of the go bowling at the Glen?
It was kind of an air race until the last 40 laps when we had that last caution put everybody
could a couple of people on different strategies.
And then we got Willie just SVG having to just go for it.
Like we don't really see him having to needing to one like that every
road course now, but he had to today to get the win.
And he ended up leading 74 laps today, like in a 100 lap ways.
So before the, I don't want to say before the excitement happened, but before the late
caution, not even a late caution, a caution with like, like 65, 70 to go somewhere around
there. It was just pure SVG dominance.
Just out to a 567 second lead, flip stage one, no problem getting back,
et cetera, et cetera.
Then final caution, not many cautions today at all.
I think only like two or three for incidences or nothing even major.
He stayed out, everybody came in, most everybody came in.
And then SVG came from a 29 seconds pack, drove through the field.
Now, was the field saving tires and fuel?
Absolutely.
They absolutely a hundred percent were.
However, you still don't see a 29 second deficit eaten up like that in the NASCAR
Cup series, and he picked them up and put them down left over right.
Rough day for Connor Zillich.
It almost looked like it was going to be the day finally for him to get a solid
finish at a road course.
His team told him to go.
He went.
However, he then lost a right front tire.
He came in, he finished back in the twenties.
RCR, fantastic, fantastic day for Richard Childress racing today.
Austin Dillon, the first top 10 all season that literally came out of nowhere.
And tire fall off was also an absolutely storyline of the day today.
Besides the SVG dominance, Finley, what else stood out about you about today's
race? Well, I mean, I think we can pretty conclusively say Ty Gibbs beat
Connor Zillich like now granted, Zillich did have to pit at the end of the
day, but like Gibbs was able to keep behind, keep Zillich behind him, that
entire one.
And I also do think that like I don't think either of them was we're going to
beat SVG and maybe even McDowell, but like they were kind of both their
worst enemy because they just kept having to waste each other.
Gibbs was able to keep Zillich behind him with that's not easy to do at
road courses.
No.
Yeah.
And Gibbs still walked out of here with a third place for us.
Yeah.
I was tuned into Connor Zillich's radio for that last little bit and it was
very interesting listening to the team break down how far they or rather how
short they were on fuel compared to Ty Gibbs.
I want to say Ty Gibbs was a half lap short officially according to his
team and Connor Zillich's team definitely told him that they were shorter than
that and they needed to save more and he was doing a really good job saving fuel
for a while.
He was keeping his lap times in check and then they told him to go and he went
and tried to make the pass.
Yeah.
He kept locking the tires up and then once you once you lock them up once you
just keep it's very easy to just keep locking them up.
No matter what you're talking about.
And what was interesting is they told him to go because I was listening to his
scanner.
Like I said, they told him to go and he started going and then they quickly
came on the radio to speak to each other and they're like he's going too
hard talk about talk about mixed signals.
Right.
You're you finally get the go ahead to go and then the background is maybe
going to live too hard.
So another rough day for Connor Zillich, but the talent is obviously there.
The speed is there.
He will get one.
I don't know if he's going to win an oval course this year.
I do think he's going to win a cup series road course this year.
And he's 19.
Yeah, it's that's insane.
That's the big thing.
Yeah, it's insane.
You know, I mean, at the very least he walked out of here out of this weekend
with a good expending when well, he didn't almost die right in victory lane.
God, that was a year ago already.
Yeah.
Anyway, let's head track side to our esteemed front stretch correspondence.
Stefan Stumpf and Phil Allaway, where they will discuss the pure and utter
domination from SVG today.
Boys, take it away.
Hello, everyone.
Welcome to Watkins Glen International.
I'm Stephen Stumpf.
He's Phil Allaway.
We're reporters for Front Stretch and we are here at Watkins Glen in May.
And it was once again, Shane Van Gisbergen, just basically flexing his
flexing his muscles on the rest of the field, won the pole, won the race,
led nearly three quarters of the race, won by seven seconds.
What can't this guy do?
Ah, man, Shane Van Gisbergen was in the zoom today.
He even with the strategy to kind of put them on the back foot.
He was in his zone.
He was so happy when he didn't have to conserve at all over the
final 24 laps of this race.
And he went from 29 seconds in the hole to seven in front of Michael
McDowell and 15 in front of Ty Gibbs.
Oh, he was very happy afterwards.
Yep, the majority of the field pitted on lap 60.
They can make it to the very end, but SVG, Tyler Redick, a few other cars
had pitted all the way back on lap 40.
And so they had to make an extra pit stop under green SVG.
Like he said, was almost 30 seconds back of the lead when he made
his stop with about 25 to go.
And then he just drove all the way back, you know, making up two seconds
per lap, three seconds per lap on the way to yet another dominant victory.
It was very fun to watch that play out.
It is very reminiscent of the race yesterday, too, where Zillich had
to make a pit stop and he drove all the way back, you know, to win in the
final corner.
Speaking of Connor Zillich, he is qualified fifth.
He was looking like he was going to have a great day, maybe a top five
using the tank for the win at the end, but then a flat tire was easily
his best cup race of his career so far and to 20th.
Yes, unfortunately, Tyler, I mean, unfortunately, Connor had lockup issues.
He locked up his right front tire and it kept coming back to that
lock to that flat spot, locking it up again, again.
And unfortunately, it blew out the tire and he was forced to pit, but
eight laps to go and that was the end of his day.
He was, he was able to make up 10 spots after he came back out, but
that's all we can say about that.
Yeah, he was just obviously is very dejected, disappointed after the race,
but I mean, hey, you know, it's, it's been a bit of a struggle for that
team this year.
He showed everyone, you know, this is exactly the kind of performance
we were expecting him to have.
We were anticipating to have and, you know, the flat tire side, he performed
great, you know, also performing great was Ty Gibbs, he finished third on
that, on, you know, on this same strategy as Zillage, fourth place.
Chase Briscoe was fourth and he, and he ran well.
He was also on the Gibbs Zillage strategy and he managed to hold it off.
He was, he had to hold off the RCR contention to get there, which
was very refreshing for them because this has been such a tough season for
them. Austin Dillon finished sixth, Kyle Busch ran a little too hard,
ran out of gas on the last lap, dropped to 58, but it still is best
for the year.
Yes, with how, you know, much of a struggle it's been for RCR, a double
top 10, I believe it's their first since 2024.
What a big weekend for them.
It also seems like the switch to, you know, Andy Street back being back
on Kyle Busch's pitbox is also paying wonders and Kyle, Kyle did this all
while not feeling well in the car too.
So quite the, quite the result for them.
Yes, Kyle apparently has been suffering from a sinus cold and during
the race he radioed in to his crew and asked for a doctor to beat him out
of his bus after the race.
Hopefully he feel, he recovers this week and he'll be back in tip top shape
for the All-Star racing dog.
Indeed.
We've talked about who did well and also doing well is Tyler Reddick who
scored yet another top five and now has a 129 point lead over Denny Hamlin
in the standings.
He continues his great year, but let's talk about who didn't do well and
that was Joey Logano, right, left, front, flat, you know, had issues after
that and finished last.
William Byron also got taken out in a multi-car crash.
He finished 36th, but also, you know, but also the various shocking part in
the very end at least is Cody Ware, multi-car crash with 10 laps to go.
He destroyed the Armco barrier, drove it back, but despite all that, no
caution and that's not the first time we've seen, I guess, a really bad
looking Cody Ware crash in a road course that, you know, was very hesitant
to help, you know, destroy the yellow or not even throw it at all in this case.
Yeah, viewers at home unfortunately didn't really get to see what happened to
Cody.
You saw his number 51 kind of sitting off to the side after Josh Berry spun out,
but you didn't really have an idea what happened to him.
It took a check of the HBO Max driver cams to be able to see it.
He went hard into that barrier and yes, he drove away, but he kind of potted
around the track at an unsafe speed after that.
He made like three or four stops to try to finish, but he just couldn't
quite do that, unfortunately.
It's not swell.
Yeah, that's about all the time we have.
Despite the cold weather, we had, you know, it was, you know, fans, it was a
struggle, especially for camping, but I'd say the great, the races, all four of
them were fantastic, but it's getting cold out.
It's also getting very dark.
As you can probably tell by the camera, so we got to go, but tune in next week.
We got a triple header at Dover.
We have the all star race.
Gonna be a fun one that until then I'm Stephen Stump.
He's from the Lalloway and we'll see you next week.
All right.
Thank you, Stefan and Phil.
We appreciate all of the hard work you've done this weekend at Watkins
Glen and for the love of life, please try to stay dry.
I have friends at Watkins Glen today and I have been getting pictures
of the parking lot all day long.
It is, if you've seen, obviously, I think a lot of people have seen the
situation on social media, I assure you it is worse than what you think.
It is terrible there.
Godspeed anybody who's trying to get out of those parking lots today.
If you do not have a truck, fingers crossed.
Yeah.
For anybody who's not been to Watkins Glen, it's basically a huge campground
that they put one of the greatest road courses in the country in the middle.
So it's just a muddy mess right now.
Yeah, it's absolutely just destroyed.
Thankfully for all involved, Watkins Glen date moves back next year to
the more appropriate late summer fall date.
I think they said it's going to be in the chase, not an official date.
So thankfully, hopefully the muddy mess is just a one year thing.
Speaking of hopefully one year things next week's race, the All-Star Race
at Dover, 350 laps at Dover for the NASCAR All-Star Race.
That seems weird to say.
Finley thoughts on next week's All-Star Race at Dover.
I don't know why.
Why?
Like it's longer than like the COVID races at Dover.
And those were four points that actually mattered.
I do have a list here of the All-Star Race drivers.
Please read them down.
Right now we have Christopher Bell, Josh Berry, Wyand Laney, Chase Busco,
Kyle Busch, William Bywin, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindrick, Austin Dillon,
Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Colson Husserville, Brad Kizlowski,
Joey Logano, Kyle Lawson, Tyler Wettig, St. Van Gizbogan and Bubba Wallace.
So like everybody.
And then we have the fan vote winner, which NASCAR has not, they've
released the top 10 drivers, but they haven't revealed the rankings.
Sure.
And that's A.J.
Almondingo, Alex Bowman, Chris Busco, Noah Graxon, Eric Jones, Michael
McDowell, Wyand Police, Wickey Stenhouse, Jr., Daniel Schroes and
Conor Phillips.
And also none of this really matters because all of them are
storing the race anyway with the format.
I know.
Full field starts the full two segments.
I don't understand it.
I don't, I don't.
The all-star race.
Now, I don't want to peel the curtain back too much here.
But while I have a baby face, I am almost 40 years old.
I have been watching these cars make left-hand turns for a very long time.
The all-star race used to be something the fans got excited for.
I don't know, like, I don't know if it was just because that one night you
saw the different paint schemes that you didn't see all the time.
I don't know if it just was the very, like, limited field compared to
what we get today.
Obviously the different cars, et cetera, et cetera.
They got to do something to bring it back.
What I don't know, but no one is asking for an all-star race at Dover.
I'm, I'm close to Dover.
I would say Dover.
Actually, here, let me take a look.
I think I looked at this the other day.
I want to say Pocono, I think, is the closest racetrack to me physically.
Yeah, I am.
I'm officially two hours and 10 minutes from Pocono and then from Dover.
I might even be closer to Dover.
Dover International Speedway.
I haven't been to Dover in a while.
Two hours and 45 minutes.
So only 45 minutes further for me to go to Dover.
Even though I am on a family vacation next weekend, I still had literally
zero interest in going to this event.
My older brother said, hey, like, we need to check out this all-star race.
And I'm like, I would much rather just wait till they move it further away.
Like, like any anywhere, should it be the short track in this package?
No. Should it be at a super speedway?
Obviously not.
Just take it back to Charlotte.
Just just it's going to be good racing.
It's put decent cars like do do something like all-star race at Dover, not it.
I am just nervous that the like nobody's going to be watching or going to it.
And they'll look at that and be like, Oh, Dover's the problem then.
And it's not.
Give it a Dover.
It's not like I'm just looking at this graphic and I'm just thinking about how,
you know, back in the day, Winston and later Nextel were pretty good about
doing more like fan integration in this.
Like, yeah, but right now we just had the fan vote.
But like back in the day, like the fans would vote on how many calls you didn't
roll, you know, sometimes they'd vote on the segment.
Sometimes they do other things like this is basically just here it is.
Yeah.
It's just a race.
Yeah.
It's a race.
It's a race that they're saying is the all-star race.
Now, again, we are in a particular interesting sport where it's like we kind
of see an all-star race.
You think about it every week, right?
Like every every all the stars are there, et cetera, et cetera.
That's what NBC said when they signed up with NASCAR in like 2016.
Oh, every race is an all-star race.
But you can make it special.
Like you said, I completely forgot about the fans voting for the invert and
stuff like that.
If you did that at Charlotte with how this car races now, it would probably be
fantastic.
It would be fantastic.
And they're close to home.
Everybody would be happy.
But no, we're doing the all-star race at Dover and now watch next week we come
on here and we're like, oh my God, that was the greatest thing ever.
Fingers crossed that that happens.
But I know and also too, like they've never really experimented with it.
Like no, it was like the only really interesting layout they've ever done.
Like they had the they had it in solar for how many years then they never
thought to put on the oval.
If you had your choice of an all-star race location and and and think of
it like this time of year as well, because it seems like it's always this
time of year, where would you put it?
What I put it.
That's a good question because my point has always been that it should just
be the 37th race.
I mean, if I had to put it somewhere, I would put it on Dolt bustle,
which is wild, right?
But at least that's something different.
It's, you know, it's a fantastic idea because like you said, A, it's different.
B, Dirt Bristol got away.
Got it now.
Perhaps I'm a dirt racing fan.
Sprint cars all around me here that you can't see.
I love me some dirt.
Dirt Bristol got a bad rap.
Dirt Bristol was great.
And something like that, you're right.
That would, it would be one time a year, it would be different.
And you could get dirt ringers in if you wanted to for the open cars to get
them in different paint scheme, whatever, like Nascar.
We're not even, we're not even doing special paint schemes.
No, it's nothing.
It's just, it's just here's 350 laps of Dover.
Like I don't want to be stupid, but like when Dale senior would come out with
like the Wheaties scheme or the Olympics scheme or the, I think I said the
Wheaties scheme already, the Sam Bass scheme, which is my personal favorite.
So this year is the 40th anniversary of the Iron Man scheme.
Yeah.
What is it?
Yeah.
The iron scheme or whatever.
Yeah.
Jeff Gordon's T-Rex car sideways Sam Hornish with his crooked car getting
it through to the open.
Like all this cool stuff had happened at the All-Star race.
We can do it still.
So hopefully I didn't plan for this to be a rant on the All-Star race, but
this is what we do here at the stock car scoop.
So anyway, Nascar Brass, if you're listening, save the All-Star race.
Let's, let's, let's wrap this idea for next year and bring it back.
And it's just really crazy to me because it's like, it's a waste
that explicitly doesn't matter.
So like you at least think that they, like you're not bound by any.
What, what, what blows me away is that you can gamble on the All-Star race,
which like is, is wild, but like you're right.
It doesn't matter.
Like, and, and, and you can, it's, it's just as far as gambling concerned,
it's just like any other race.
It's just, it's, it's a bit like when they were doing the eye-wasting stuff
and they were going to like Texas and Dovo and it's like, do something wild.
Have them go to like Suzuko or something.
Eye-wasting, let's go.
Let, let, let's do twin ring Motegi like way back in the day.
Like absolutely.
Anyway, we, we can go on and on in this and we should wrap this bad boy up.
Like I said, next week, All-Star race at Dover.
I am on family vacation, so I'm not sure if it will be my lovely face
hosting the stock car scoop next week or if it will be a replacement host.
Stay tuned for that.
Mr. Finley, any plugs for you?
Good sir.
Not really.
I've got a column that's going to be winning next,
wanting on Tuesday morning, five points.
So don't know what I'm going to write about yet, but we'll figure out as we go.
Hey, that's sometimes when the, when the best stuff happens.
As always, fans of the happy hour, please join the happy hour live
Tuesdays at 7 30 p.m. here on the front stretch YouTube channels.
Always a great show there for Phil and Stefan at the track for
Mr. Michael Finley.
I am Eric Schneck and thank you once again for listening to another
episode of the stock car scoop.
Adios.
Bang.
Yeah.
About this episode
Watkins Glen and the Next Gen road-course conversation gets tied together with strategy swings, tire/fuel management, and late-race chaos. The hosts note how “the last caution put everybody could a couple of people on different strategies,” while tire fall off and lockups reshaped results—especially for Connor Zillich after “he then lost a right front tire.” They also highlight Shane van Gisbergen’s dominance at Watkins Glen and close by previewing the All-Star Race at Dover and the fan-vote/invert format.
Original notes
A seemingly impossible charge for the win by Shane van Gisbergen and late-race strategy made for one of the more intriguing road races at Watkins Glen.
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