Since the Next Gen NASCAR Cup Series car is designed for road racing, can they finally run the boot at Watkins Glen International? – Grigori S., Sarasota, Fla.
NASCAR can, but it shouldn’t.
Watkins Glen has seen only one layout change since NASCAR began its annual visits in 1986: adding the inner loop bus stop chicane after the tragic death of JD McDuffie. This is the short-course layout, the 11-turn, 2.45-mile superspeedway of road courses, as close to a perfect racetrack as the world will ever see.
Some people (who are wrong) want to change that. Tony Stewart is one of the most vocal appreciators of the Boot, an additional complex of four corners that lengthens the Glen by exactly 1 mile, composing the full grand prix layout used by IMSA and, in previous decades, the NTT IndyCar Series and Formula 1.
Every time Watkins Glen weekend rolls around, voices cry out for NASCAR to run the Boot.
For three reasons, that would be a mistake.
First, as Bob Pockrass pointed out on Twitter, lengthening the track by 1 mile would almost certainly force NASCAR to reduce the lap count. Because Watkins Glen is a natural-terrain road course, fans at the track can’t see the cars at all times. Taking away laps then means fewer times the cars pass by at full tilt. It’s not a huge deal, but if I were a loyal ticketholder, I’d feel a little stiffed.
to add an extra mile with the boot, the feeling is there would need to be fewer laps, meaning fewer times that fans see the cars. Plus not convinced much passing would occur in that area. Also would need to adjust camping in that area, I believe. https://t.co/EZWmLiJs0C
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) August 16, 2022
Secondly, the longer the track length, the longer the caution laps. With two planned stage cautions on top of any natural cautions caused by the tricky, old-school course and current no-holds-barred Cup driving style, NASCAR would be lengthening the amount of time and distance spent behind the pace car.
Most importantly, running the Boot would take away one of Watkins Glen’s best passing zones: from the exit of the Carousel, down the straight into turn 10. This is where Brad Keselowski tried his last bump and run on Marcos Ambrose in the 2012 Cup race, the climax of the greatest single lap in the history of motor racing (which our own Adam Cheek covered in detail earlier this week).
Running the Boot stitches the Carousel to turn 6, a fast, flowing, truly spectacular corner ……
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