Eric Smith

5 burning questions for Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN)

Can Anyone Stop Hendrick Motorsports?

Chase Elliott won two in-a-row. Kyle Larson has since done so giving Hendrick Motorsports four straight wins here. Can they make it five in-a-row in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN)?

HMS is 0-for-4 on road courses this season and Larson’s win here last August was their lone victory in six races on these types of tracks in 2022.

However, they’ve just been so dominant here overall to think that this reign just ends on Sunday.

Larson’s last four Watkins Glen finishes are sixth, eighth, first and first respectively. He has also finished 14th, eighth, fourth and 8th respectively on road courses in 2023.

Elliott won two of the last four years in Watkins Glen with being runner-up (2021) and fourth (2022) in the others. Elliott didn’t race COTA this year but was fifth in Sonoma, third in Chicago and 2nd in Indy this season.

William Byron was only fifth, 14th, 13th and 14th this year on these tracks. 22nd here a year ago too.

Alex Bowman was 14th, 14th, 20th and 14th in four WGI starts at HMS. On these tracks this season, he’s finished third, 15th, 37th and 5th respectively.

WATKINS GLEN, NEW YORK – AUGUST 20: Kimi Raikkonen, driver of the #91 Recogni Chevrolet, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 20, 2022 in Watkins Glen, New York. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Will Race Be Won On Saturday?

Qualifying is everything here. 11 of the last 12 winners have started in the top 3 Rows including the last 5 from the top 2 Rows.

16 of the last 18 have started in the top 10.

Starting positions on road courses this season: 2nd (COTA), 8th (Sonoma), 3rd (Chicago), 4th (Indy).

Which makes me wonder if Sunday’s race will be won in qualifying on Saturday. The entire top four starters in Indy finished 1-2-3-4.

Goodyear has made rain tires, can they make an option tire too?

Is An Option Tire Needed For NASCAR Races?

Formula 1 has it. They’ve got like three options for tires during the course for a race weekend. The NTT IndyCar Series has it to. They have a Black tire (primary) and green tire (alternate). The options for both series are for alternate tires to be faster in speed but fall off faster too. The primary tires are slower, but they last longer.

It calls for strategy options. Is it time for NASCAR to find one?

Several drivers I talked to say it couldn’t hurt and would be an interesting wrinkle to improve the racing on these tracks. It would allow for strategy plays and ones that would spice the racing up.

I mean, with a new car now, this may be the time to try it. It could help shake up the field with varying strategies and help add another layer to help road courses out some.

It could create some drama that keeps you in turn from the start to the finish. I mean, the INDYCAR races that I cover are wild due to this. Pit strategy and tire options are a real thing and help play the race out differently than it normally would be.

With two different tire options for a race, it could shake that up some in the middle of these stages I feel.

Does Having Back-To-Back Road Races Help?

For the first time ever, NASCAR will host back-to-back weeks of road course races. How much does this help teams this weekend after having a full road race last weekend in Indy?

See, road racing is all about finding rhythm and a touch and for this week, you don’t have to focus on anything but turning left and right for two straight weeks now. Is there an advantage to be found in doing so?

Does Running Xfinity Series Races Help Anymore?

With having the Xfinity Series pair with the Cup Series on the last two road course races, some cup drivers have elected to run in the Xfinity Series races as a result to gain more seat time. However, with the two cars being so vastly different, does it serve much of a purpose outside of seat time to do so?

In the past, it was much easier to hop between cars. Now though, they are night and day apart from one another.

The Cup car uses a sequential shifter. The Xfinity Series is the normal H pattern. The Cup car is more made for turning left and right when the Xfinity one isn’t. They have different downforce levels too meaning that much of what you learn on Saturday won’t translate over on Sunday.

So, why do so?

The braking points are different and you risk on Sunday missing a shift by downshifting thinking you’re in an Xfinity Series car instead of upshifting using the sequential shifter in a Cup car.

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