Watkins Glen Cheez-It 355 Recap

For race fans who found a way to watch NASCAR’s second and final road course race of the 2016 season, the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen – the 2.45-mile, 10-turn bit of mayhem that was Watkins Glen – the trip over to USA Network was well worth the time.

For the second year in a row, reserved grandstand tickets sold out for the race.

The Daytona 500 victor tweeted a picture Tuesday after he received his version of the Harley J. Earl Trophy that goes to drivers who win the Great American Race. Keselowski finished third, AJ Allmendinger took fourth and five-time race victor Tony Stewart fifth in what was likely his Watkins Glen Sprint Cup finale. Exiting turn 7 on the final lap, Truex had contact with the #2 of Brad Keslowski that left him spinning and out of contention for the win.

Once the duo made it to pit road, Keselowski walked over to discuss the incident with Truex Jr.

“That was really unfortunate and the last thing I wanted to see”, he said.

Hamlin said that his biggest disappointment in his narrow miss at Sonoma was not completing the cycle of victories on all types of tracks that NASCAR races on.

The speculation turned out to be true. He is one of the most reliable road racers, and he has four straight finishes of seventh or better at road course events, including a third-place run at The Glen past year when he led the most laps. Furniture Row Racing is adding a second vehicle for 2017, something team ownership has been talking about for a while now.

Hamlin who has driven with torn ACLs in both knees in the past, texted his crew chief Mike Wheeler the news, and an emergency plan was put in place to put Xfinity Series Chase grid leader Erik Jones in the No. 11 FedEx vehicle if necessary.

“This track here, when you drive into the corner, you commit, and sometimes you don’t know what will happen when you commit”. I nearly want to say if he knew he didn’t have a winning auto, he might do something different. Busch has been at his best at The Glen, cracking the top 10 in nine of his last ten starts, and his 191 laps led in that span are 104 more than any other driver. There were two yellows after Hamlin took the lead on Lap 81, when Kyle Busch and Keselowski ran wide in Turn 1, and Hamlin seized the moment. Before today’s race, he had never led a lap at Watkins Glen before.

It was an ending befitting a race track accustomed to wild racing. It’s just hard racing. Just insane out there. The race also had two red flag stoppages for 30 minutes. 8 cautions and 2 red flags, one nearly 15 minutes long, for a series of crashes that started at lap 53 when Jimmie Johnson plowed into a already wrecked Ricky Stenhouse Jr.