mdrums

Everyone this will be a good race...it's on now...watch it!

VaSteve

Lot of fun! Watched in person from the esses. Glad to see Montoya finally get one.

mdrums

Montoya won Infieon for his 1 st race

FredC

Great show. Just watched the highlights. I wish they did more road courses!

Mike Buck

Great race. Watched from behind the pits looking at T1.

Veloce Raptor

Watched the entire race...damn, good stuff!!!










Professional Racing and Driving Coach

BrianKeithSmith

Definitely good stuff!

MUSSBERGER

The Montoya Ambrose fight was great to watch.

Jay Gratton

It is really the only NASCAR race I will watch from start to finish.

RedlineMan

I'll offer a different take;

NASCAR ruins the Glen again

So many of the mods to the track that have been done to make it better for NASCAR have not made it better for REAL road racing. The new and improved paving they did some years ago that fell apart immediately and begat us the unnecessary concrete patches everywhere was the first egregious change. Now, the track is like an auto-x on a big parking lot. No need to be overly precise coming out of many of the most difficult turns. No penalty for making the track as wide as you need it to be because of your over exuberance. No tall curbs in the Inner Loop that will pitch you off course if you CHEAT too much. Just drive off over the curb and keep your foot in it. The biggest crashes happened because of this too. The huge paved runoff areas were done completely wrong. You need to pay a price for what everywhere else in the real road racing world ( damned FIA) would be dropping tires off into the grass/dirt. Nope, not NASCAR.

I really wonder if anyone who runs the Glen knows anything about real road course driving? It was a great show by two real racers, but this one point took the luster right out of it for me.

VaSteve

Didn't they make a lot of those mods to attract F1? Nice to see the SAFER barrier do its job and not punt the cars back into the middle of the track like the tires did. The red flag during the nationwide race was nuts!

Scootin159

Was flagging all weekend - gives you a great view of the on-track action, and an interesting perspective on the off-track action.

Also was great to see those two cars battle it out at the front of the pack. Really showed how far ahead those two are on road courses relative to everyone else. All weekend long they were just in another league.

Somewhat disappointed we didn't get to see Pruett drive the #24 car. I think he may have been a contender for a top 5 if he was given the chance. His FIRST hot lap in practice (first time in the car), he was within 1 second of Gordon's best lap to that point (~3 hours of practice).

1) You have to remember that WGI is owned by ISC, which is owned by NASCAR. Also, while the IRL, Rolex, SCCA, PCA, BMWCCA or any other major club which runs there may bring in significant money for WGI, they are all insignificant in perspective to NASCAR. More money was made this last weekend by the track than every other weekend combined, many times over. As such any modification done to the track is done with NASCAR in mind.

2) While every other club which runs there discourages off-track excursions to one extent or another, NASCAR considers anything between the blue rails "track". The ONLY exception to this is the "no-loop", but even then drivers can proceed with a minimum penalty (stop-go in no-loop area).

An example of this would be the turn 1 runoff - EVERY other series gives a penalty for any non-accident-avoidance maneuver out there (as it's possible to cut lap time by going through the runoff). NASCAR just considers it a "passing zone".

3) Combine 1 & 2, and you'll find that runoffs and low curbs are there not for safety, but instead to provide extra room for passing. They may contribute to safety, and allow cars to "spin and continue", but it's not hard to see their real purpose in life.

Gary R.

I enjoyed it, thought it was great how they would early apex 11 and bounce off the foam when they went over the curb! Was like watching Baron Jacobs at the club race!

Scootin159

There hasn't been any talk of F1 @ the Glen (from track management) since the ISC took over. The curbs were lowered for IRL, but the runoffs were all as per NASCAR's request.

RedlineMan

Correction;

Anyone with any history there does not have to try to remember. The specter of NASCAR is something one cannot forget! The 800lb gorilla that kept the track alive, but breaks things and $hits everywhere. The fact that the paved runoffs save sheetmetal and keep races moving is a great thing, but paying no price for going "off the track surface" dilutes the racing in my opinion. There needs to be a fair strip of grass between the curb and the paved runoff so that when you know you are going off, you have to GIVE IT UP, woe it down, save it, and return to the surface with your tail between your legs just a bit. You need to pay a price for your over exuberance in my estimation.

But, I've been a idealistic at least once before.