Watkins Glen Review, Daytona Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S1:E26

In this episode of Chase and the Rocket, LL England reviews the races from Watkins Glen. Kyle Larson controversially wins the race, followed by AJ Almendinger. Chase Elliott was dominant but got roughed up by Larson on a restart. In the Xfinity race, Larson also wins, with Ty Gibbs causing a late incident. Watkins Glen had good racing and TV ratings. In the news, Don Staley is named the honorary pace car driver, penalties are given, and NASCAR sponsors an Alabama Christian sports program. Kurt Busch will miss another race due to a concussion. Previewing the upcoming races at Daytona, Justin Haley is predicted to win the Xfinity race, while Bubba Wallace is the pick for the Cup race. Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Chase and the Rocket. I am your host, LL England, and in this episode, I'm going to be reviewing the races from Watkins Glen. I'll also go over the news, and I'm going to preview the regular season finale at Daytona. But first, let's take a look at the results from Watkins Glen. Kyle Larson breaks his 23 race win list streak and wins controversially at Watkins Glen, followed by AJ Almendinger in second, Joey Logano in third, Chase Elliott in fourth, Daniel Suarez in fifth, Michael McDowell in sixth, Tyler Rittich in seventh, Christopher Bell in eighth, Chris Fuscher in ninth, and Eric Jones rounds out the top ten. So overall, this was a very good race. There was plenty of passing and some action going on, and it was basically the Indy Road Course without the chaos, or at least to an extent, because you had some chaotic moments, especially with some drivers going over their heads. Of course, with Ross Chastain again, he caused a four car incident at the bus stop, which took out one of the biggest stories of the race, Kimi Räikkönen, and Kimi Räikkönen was running up toward the top ten. I think he has the talent to run pretty well at these road courses, but he got taken out in an incident which involved Ross Chastain, Ross Chastain got into someone, and then Lawrence Hazelman tried to miss the wreck, but got into Kimi, and Kimi went right into the arm co-barrier. But we gotta talk about that final restart. So Chase Elliott went to the outside on the restart, and Kyle Larson took the inside, and as they headed toward the heavy braking zone of turn one, Larson kind of got into Elliott as they went into the corner, showed them up the racetrack, and took the lead. Kind of a dirty move. And then Chase Elliott went back to fourth, although he was probably the dominant driver of the day, but once again, Kyle Larson has ruffled up Chase Elliott's feathers again. And of course, this is not the first time they got into an auto club after Kyle Larson pulled a late block and took Chase out of the running, and then that caused Chase's tow link to break, and they had to go to Pit Road to repair it. So, in my opinion, Kyle Larson didn't really need to be that aggressive on that restart. Even though Chase Elliott made kind of the wrong choice to go to the outside, you didn't have to rough him up like that. You don't have to do that. You can just go to the inside, he'll stay to your outside through turn one, and then he may fall in line, or continue the race to you into turn two, and into the esses. But just don't rough him up like that. Let's try to avoid that as much as possible. And of course, Chase Elliott was upset, but he was trying to hold back the frustration, which is mature on him, by saying, congrats to him, we're gonna go to Bristol next week, and we'll see what happens there. But we know we're not going to Bristol, we're going to the exact opposite of Bristol. We're going to Daytona, by God. And Kyle Larson said that even though he got into him, Chase Elliott went to the outside, and that was a bad choice on him, but Kyle had to do everything that he needed to do to win. I think Chase owes Larson something, and I think that may come at Bristol or Martinsville. Kind of like how Ross Chastain was roughing up Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott early in the year, and then at Polkadot, you know what happened? Denny Hamlin returned the favor. So I think Chase Elliott might do that as well. But we'll have to see. But overall, this was a solid race. Watkins Glen, and from what I've heard, it was a sellout. I'm not sure how many people stayed after the lightning delay, and I'm saying if Watkins Glen continues to sellout, then I'd say it's perfect for it to stay on the schedule. And finally for the Xfinity race, Kyle Larson sweeps the weekend by getting a lucky win at Watkins Glen, followed by A.G. Amundinger, once again coming in second at Watkins Glen. Sammy Smith finishes third, and he was contending for the win late, and he almost got his first win, but on the final restart, he didn't get the jump off of turn one that he needed. Noah Gregson finishes fourth. Kaz Grala has a good run in the 48 and finishes fifth. Sam Mayer finishes sixth. Riley Herbst finishes seventh. Sheldon Creed finishes eighth. Josh Ferry finishes ninth. And Jeremy Clements has a good run and rounds out the top ten. And so overall, that was a really good race. It was probably, maybe the best race of the weekend. The racing was more action-packed than Cup was, just about. There was plenty of side-by-side racing, and we gotta talk about that finish between William Byron and Ty Gibbs. So basically, going into the bus stop on that final restart, it's clear that Ty Gibbs overtook the corner, and that led to him getting to the 17, and they both went around, and that allowed Kyle Barson and A.G. Amundinger, as well as Sammy Smith, to battle to the victory. And after the incident in turn six, William Byron dumped Ty Gibbs in turn six, and then afterward, after the race, they had a conversation. And there were no punches, of course. Ty Gibbs didn't throw any punches like he did at Martinsville. So they just had a conversation. It was clear that Ty Gibbs was at fault. He overtook the corner and took them both out. So that's clearly a lesson that Ty Gibbs needed to learn, that he should probably not overtook the corner that comes to the bus stop. So this was a little bit of a learning experience for him. And so overall, for the weekend, this was a great weekend for racing at Watkins Glen. I'd say Watkins Glen is probably one of the best road courses on the schedule right now. And so with that out of the way, let's get to the news. Don Staley has been named the honorary pace car driver for the Cookout Southern 500. Rick Ware has been penalized after Watkins Glen due to violating sections 14.11.2.1, and 10.5.2.6e safety penalty ballast, which was the last separation of added ballast from the vehicle, which means for the next four weeks, Cody Ware's crew chief, Billy Pord, car chief Jamie Edwards, and team engineer Stephen Gray will be sidelined for four weeks, but will return after the Bristol night race. The only other penalty for Watkins Glen in the Xfinity series when there was a lug nut not secure on a J. Almendinger's car, but that's a minor penalty. The Benz store will be sponsoring Justin Haley in his Xfinity race at Daytona. And a first of its kind sponsorship, NASCAR will become a primary partner of the Alabama Christian Tide sports athletics program. The Morgan Law Group will be joining Penny G. Amiss and Eric Jones for Homestead, Miami. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will be driving for Big Machine Racing at Daytona. Now for the Watkins Glen TV ratings. On Sunday, USA Network averaged 2.619 million viewers, which is up 20% from last year's race on NBCSN. So this is the seventh straight cup race to deliver gains in TV ratings, which is very good with the USA effect. Of course, the only team that still has to run this year is Team Strange, and Tarsem Lakez still hopes to run some cup races with the team. And of course, Chase Elliott has clinched the regular season championship, so he'll get the 15 extra playoff points. Last week it was reported by Motorsport.com that Eric Amarillo was due to return to the ten, but was not supposed to announce for the next few weeks. Although when asked about it at the track, Eric Amarillo still says that he is uncertain, but we'll have to see what happens because it could go either way, but we'll have to see. Just as Mark says, Project 91 is expected to run six to eight races next year. Of course, one of them I think might be Helio Castroneva's attempting to run the Daytona 500 because that's what he wanted to do after winning that SRX race at Five Flags. So we'll have to see. While I'm recording this episode, NASCAR is conducting an organizational test at Martinsville Speedway, which should hopefully get all the gear ratios correct, especially after that terrible race earlier this year. Chase Elliott will be returning to Nitro Rallycross, and he'll run at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Phoenix on November 12th through 13th. And finally, Kurt Busch will miss this weekend again because of his concussion, so that means that he will not come back until the start of the playoffs, which will start next week in Las Vegas. So, that's it for this week's news. Now it's time to preview this weekend's races at Daytona, including the Cup Series regular season finale. Starting off with Xfinity, we have the Wawa 250 powered by Coca-Cola. The race will be 100 laps and 250 miles, and the race will be on August 26th at 7.30pm Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with a Kolech driver, and I think I'm going to go with the clear favorite for this race, Justin Haley. Justin Haley has won this race three times. I think he will win the Xfinity race at Daytona. And finally, for the Cup race, which is the regular season finale, it's the Coke Zero Sugar 400. The race will be 160 laps and 400 miles, and the race will be on August 27th at 7pm Eastern Time. So let's take a look at the playoffs standings coming into this race. 15 drivers have locked themselves in so far. Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Joey Logato, William Byron, Kevin Harvick, Jenny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, Austin Sindrick, and Alex Bowman are locked in with only one playoff spot left, which is Ryan Blaney, who is currently 16th on the playoff grid with 25 points above the cut line, and then below him is Martin Truex Jr., who is 25 points below the cut line. And behind Truex is a bunch of really good super speedway racers that could potentially upset the playoff grid, such as Eric Jones, Eric Amarola, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, Justin Haley, Michael McDowell, Rick Easton-Hass Jr., Brad Kislowski, and Todd Gilland all have a chance to make it in because they are in the top 30 in the points and they have a chance to win. So let's take a look at the weather for the cup race. On Saturday night, there will be a thunderstorm in spots in the evening, otherwise clouds breaking with a low of 74 degrees, winds average south to southeast at 1 mph, with a chance of rain of 40%. So the race might get delayed at first, but as the night goes on, we should be able to see racing as everything breaks up. So prepare for an hour or two hour delay, but after that's done, we should be able to go racing. And so finally we have the cup pick, and this is definitely going to be a hard one because there's a lot of drivers that could win this weekend. But for my pick, I'm going to go with Bubba Wallace. Bubba Wallace has had a recent good run at consistency, although that came to an end recently. But I think because he's so good at these tracks, I think he has the chance to upset the playoffs, and I think he will get the victory at Daytona and become the 16th different winner this season, and the playoff grid will be locked. And so that's it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe for more. If you're going out to Daytona this weekend, I hope you have a good time. If you're not, have a good time wherever you are, and I'll see you next week.