This past weeks race at Watkins Glen International was filled with calamity for some and redemption for others.
Ross Chastain would lead the field to green side by side with Martin Truex Jr., before we could even make a lap Corey Lajoie would make his latest bid to land a new Cup Series ride by turning Kyle Busch in the inner loop. This would collect numerous playoff drivers with Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney getting the worst of it. Resulting in the latter breaking his steering box and NASCAR towing him to the garage ending his day.
The race would restart on lap six with Chastain holding serve at the point as something broke in the rear end on the #13 Go Bowling Chevrolet driven by A.J. Almendinger would have something break from 5th place that would end his day early as well. Chastain would hold his lead until he pitted to flip the stage, and Truex would inherit the lead after Shane Van Gisbergen would do the same after passing Truex for 2nd. Truex would bring home the stage one win and the valuable 10 playoff points that came with it. Hamlin would hold off Busch to get the free pass with the stage caution coming out.
Stage 1 Results:
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Alex Bowman
- Chase Briscoe
- Daniel Suarez
- Austin Cindric
- Chase Elliott
- Tyler Reddick
- Kyle Larson
- Erik Jones
- Daniel Hemric
Chastain would lead the field to green to start stage two with Michael McDowell and SVG in tow, Reddick would spin from 23rd after contact on the restart with Suarez. The second stage would be largely uneventful until we were coming to two to go in the stage, and Chastain and SVG were stuck out and unable to pit after their teammate Suarez would spin and get stuck in the sand. Chastain would win stage two.
Stage Two Results:
- Ross Chastain
- Shane Van Gisbergen
- Joey Logano
- Ty Gibbs
- William Byron
- Harrison Burton
- Chase Briscoe
- Alex Bowman
- Ryan Preece
- Denny Hamlin
Chastain and SVG would lead the field to green to start the final stage after staying out under the stage break. Four laps later, Hamlin would continue the trend of poor decisions the last few weeks and wind up spinning into the wall after trying to force a three wide move into the esses on Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson tearing up his car and making an already bad day worse.
Race would restart with 40 laps to go with Chastain and SVG still staying out, Chris Buescher would pass both within eight laps on almost 20 lap fresher tires before both former leaders would pit starting the final planned set of green flag pit stops. Buescher would retake the lead from Joey Logano with 16 to go and look to set sail. Unfortunately, this would be undone by a caution for debris from Harrison Burton’s Ford Mustang Darkhorse with just 10 laps to go.
The race would restart with six laps to go, with Buescher leading over Carson Hocevar and SVG. Before they could make it a lap, Joey Logano would make contact with Keselowski, this would send him into William Byron at the top of the esses with Byron winding up partially on top of Keselowski’s car. This would set up a restart with two laps remaining in the race. A restart that would also be undone after a block by Kyle Larson would send Todd Gilliand into Chase Elliott and Josh Berry in the esses. Would also involve Truex, Reddick, and Kyle Busch. This would result in the first (and only) overtime restart of the race. Buescher got moved by SVG, who would lead the field to the white flag. However, Buescher is able to get to him in the carousel and get back around him for his first win on the season! We would only have two playoff drivers finish in the top ten with Chase Briscoe in 6th and Austin Cindric in 10th.
Top Ten.
- Chris Buescher
- Shane Van Gisbergen
- Carson Hocevar
- Ross Chastain
- Zane Smith
- Chase Briscoe
- Michael McDowell
- Corey Lajoie
- Ryan Preece
- Austin Cindric
The cutline is reacing a boliling point heading into Bristol, with Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs both a mere six points above the cut over Denny Hamlin, who’s down six points. Keselowski, Truex, and Burton are down 12,14, and 20 points, respectively. So far, these playoffs are delivering, and they’ll only continue to do so as we head to “The Last Great Colesium”.
Photo Credit: @Chris_Buescher on Twitter/X
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