Watkins Glen

**GravettFan99** · 11th August 2014, 01:49

Man, what a crazy race today! Where do I even start?

For a while, it seemed like it was just going to be a two-horse race between Gordon and Ambrose, but then Gordon came to an abrupt stop that ended his whole day. Then, Biffle went off of the track and collected Newman - who collected McDowell, which resulted in a horrific accident that luckily saw no one hurt. After an hour-long red flag, they got underway, and suddenly it was a race between the underdogs (Allmendinger and Ambrose), but then Hamlin spun and hit the sandbags at the pit-lane entrance, resulting in another brief red flag period. With 3 laps to go, the green flag came out, and Ambrose and Allmendinger drove wheel to wheel and made contact constantly, and on the penultimate lap, Allmendinger forced Ambrose wide. Ambrose tried to fight back, but a battle between him and Kurt Busch ensued. AJ won his first ever Sprint Cup race, while Marcos just held off Kurt for 2nd. I have to say, I am glad I made the decision to watch the race today!

**R.Lee** · 11th August 2014, 11:10

Originally Posted by GravettFan99

Man, what a crazy race today! Where do I even start?

For a while, it seemed like it was just going to be a two-horse race between Gordon and Ambrose, but then Gordon came to an abrupt stop that ended his whole day. Then, Biffle went off of the track and collected Newman - who collected McDowell, which resulted in a horrific accident that luckily saw no one hurt. After an hour-long red flag, they got underway, and suddenly it was a race between the underdogs (Allmendinger and Ambrose), but then Hamlin spun and hit the sandbags at the pit-lane entrance, resulting in another brief red flag period. With 3 laps to go, the green flag came out, and Ambrose and Allmendinger drove wheel to wheel and made contact constantly, and on the penultimate lap, Allmendinger forced Ambrose wide. Ambrose tried to fight back, but a battle between him and Kurt Busch ensued. AJ won his first ever Sprint Cup race, while Marcos just held off Kurt for 2nd. I have to say, I am glad I made the decision to watch the race today!

Glad you enjoyed the race today. I'm not a road-racing fan, so I skipped this race (as well as the other road-course and indianapolis, which I am also not a fan of. Annually, I skip these three races). I saw the accident on a sports show, involving Newman, McDowell and Biffle, though it appeared to me that Biffle was not involved, other than to be the one that inniated the accident. Very lucky that no one was injured in that one. Saw the interview with Newman and agree with him, they BADLY NEED to do something to fix that area of this track. There have been several bad accidents over the years, in that location. Hope they get the hint and fix it, before someone gets seriously hurt, or worse. Congratulations to Allmendinger, on his first win. Ashame that his first will will be overshadowed by the Tony Stewart incident, of the previous night and by all the flap about it, all day, yesterday.

**GravettFan99** · 14th August 2014, 04:13

You have a good point. I really hope that they get that fixed. However, the difficulty in that is the costs to fix it. To implement the SAFER barriers around the track, Rusty Wallace says it could cost them roughly $10,000,000.00 for the job which is beyond the track's capabilities at the moment. The best method for them would be to try altering the barriers at that specific corner, or adding SAFER barriers just at that particular spot.

You're also right about Allmendinger's victory. Unfortunately, it seems to have been quite overshadowed by the tragic accident involving Tony Stewart and Kevin Ward, Jr.

**Brierley** · 19th August 2014, 03:12

I wish NASCAR would hold a race at the new road course near Austin. That is a beautiful track. It would be nice to have a race there during the Chase, it would be the road course in the Chase that everyone is calling for.

**GravettFan99** · 20th August 2014, 00:29

Couldn't agree more, a race held there would be spectacular!

**R.Lee** · 23rd August 2014, 02:06

Originally Posted by Brierley

I wish NASCAR would hold a race at the new road course near Austin. That is a beautiful track. It would be nice to have a race there during the Chase, it would be the road course in the Chase that everyone is calling for.

Originally Posted by GravettFan99

Couldn't agree more, a race held there would be spectacular!

HIGHLY unlikely that the Sprint Cup Series will ever race there. IF there is ever to be a 3rd road-course added to the schedule, for the chase or otherwise, look for it to be Road Atlanta, for the simple reason that NASCAR is the owner of that track and NASCAR, not ISC is the owner, NASCAR owns this track, Sebring and Iowa Speedway. I doubt that will ever happen and I hope it doesn't! I live 8 miles from there and the surrounding area does not have the infrastructure to support a Sprint Cup size crowd. Most of the roads in the surrounding area are two-lane. There are large numbers of residential areas. It would require massive improvements to the surrounding road system to handle a crowd of that size. That would, of course, require a huge tax increase for Hall County. We already pay some of the highest county taxes in the state. Speaking as a Hall County resident, I DO NOT want to see even higher taxes!

**GravettFan99** · 23rd August 2014, 06:51

Thanks for the clarification! Now I understand why the are not doing it.

Anyway, since it is NASCAR, I am content with the two road course races we already have.

**R.Lee** · 23rd August 2014, 18:52

Originally Posted by GravettFan99

Thanks for the clarification! Now I understand why the are not doing it.

Anyway, since it is NASCAR, I am content with the two road course races we already have.

Don't get me wrong here. I am not saying that, that is the case. I'm just saying that it would make sense for NASCAR to give a race to one of it's own tracks, before it gives in to a non-NASCAR track. I could be completely wrong. That is my opinion.