The NASCAR Xfinity Series will join the NASCAR Cup Series on the twin-bill for this weekend’s activity in Watkins Glen. Saturday’s Shriners Children’s 200 at The Glen (3:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN) isn’t as dire in regards to playoff implications like the Cup Series is, but it’s still important.

Saturday will mark the 29th Xfinity Series event at WGI as the previous 28 editions have produced 17 different winners.

Terry Labonte (1991, 1994, 1995, 1996) and Marcos Ambrose (2008, 2009, 2010, 2014) are the winningest drivers in the series with each visiting victory lane four times apiece.

Cup Series Flavor

Kyle Busch, the all-time winningest Xfinity Series driver with 102 wins is back in the series for Saturday’s race. That’s because AJ Allmendinger has hit his five-race limit and Busch had mentioned that this was a race that he was particularly fond of showing up for.

So, Kaulig Racing made it work.

Busch has made 11 Xfinity Series starts at The Glen with his last coming in 2019. He started on the pole, led 21 laps but finished 31st. He won in his previous start in 2017. In fact, he has seven Top-6 finishes in that span including three runner-ups (2008, 2009, 2014). This is his third start of the season (4th Las Vegas,9th Phoenix) as he will have two races left that he’s eligible to race in. However, with neither of them being playoff events, those two starts would have to come from Daytona, Darlington and/or Bristol.

Kaulig has never won here.

Last week’s winner Ty Gibbs, joins Busch as a Cup ringer. Gibbs has made seven starts on the season with finishes of 3rd (COTA), 5th (Charlotte), 4th (Chicago), 37th (Atlanta), 6th (Pocono), 4th (Michigan) and 1st (Indy).

Gibbs won this race in 2021 after leading 43 laps. He also led 25 laps and started second in his 27th place result.

Alex Bowman is on the entry list in the No. 17 Chevrolet. Bowman has made one Xfinity Series start on this track, coming in 2019. He started and finished sixth. He’s in the car that Kyle Larson won with in 2022.

Ross Chastain is also back. This will mark his sixth NXS starts with a best finish coming in 2016 (14th). He’s also finished only 32nd, 27th, 12th, 21st in four Cup starts too.

Cup Series regulars have won this race in 16 of the last 17 tries. From Ryan Newman (2005) to Kurt Busch (2006, 2011) to Kevin Harvick (2007) to Marcos Ambrose (2008, 2009, 2010, 2014) to Carl Edwards (2012) to Brad Keselowski (2013), Joey Logano (2014, 2015, 2018), Kyle Busch (2016), Austin Cindric (2019) and Kyle Larson (2022), this has been a Cup dominated event. Gibbs’ win in 2021 was the first time since Ron Fellows in 2001 that a non Cup driver won this event. The last NXS regular outside of Gibbs to win was Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 1998.

Austin Hill vs. John Hunter Nemechek

The duo were tied atop the points lead coming to Indianapolis last week. Hill had a top-five result where Nemechek was 13th. As a result, Hill opened up an 11 point advantage heading into Watkins Glen this weekend.

With four races left in the regular season, can he hold him off?

Hill finished just 30th last season. However, he did come from the pole to win in the Truck Series race in the Finger Lakes region in 2021 too. Also, he has 5 top 10 finishes in six road races run in 2023 as well.

Nemechek was 12th in this race in 2019 but was runner-up to Hill in the 2021 Truck Series race. Still, he’s not been great on road racing in 2023 with only a pair of top 10 finishes.

Hill has accumulated the fifth most road course points (152) scored in 2023 with Nemechek (125) in ninth.

Hill, the driver of the No. 21 Chevrolet, has four top four finishes in the last five races. Nemechek has finished 13th or worse in 3 of the last 4 races, however, if going back to Nashville in late June, he’s finished 6th, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st in the other five races too.

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JRM

JR Motorsports only has 2 wins all season. However, they have some of the best road racers in their program this season and I’m curious to see if they can score a win on Saturday.

No one is as hot as Sam Mayer right now. 8 top 10 finishes in the last 10 races including 7 of the 8 in the top 5. In fact, he comes to Watkins Glen on the heels of finishes of 2nd, 1st, 5th, 2nd the last 4 weeks. On road courses in 2023, he’s finished 7th (COTA), 3rd (Portland), 10th (Sonoma), 18th (Chicago), 1st (Road America) and 2nd (Indy). In two WGI starts, he’s finished 10th, 6th respectively.

Watch out for Justin Allgaier too. In 11 WGI starts, he’s posted 7 top 10 finishes and 4 top fives. He was 3rd in 2018, 3rd in 2019, 4th in 2021 and 38th last year. On road courses this season, he’s finished 5th (COTA), 2nd (Portland), 7th (Sonoma), 3rd (Chicago), 5th (Indy). Those road course top fives are his only two in the last nine starts too.

Josh Berry was ninth last year and this year but only 7th (COTA), 21st (Portland), 37th (Sonoma), 27th (Chicago), 16th (Road America), 23rd (Indy) this season. He does have 2 top six finishes in the last three races overall though too.