Watkins Glen International has always been one of my favorite dates of the NASCAR Cup Series calendar. It is the track that hosted the first Cup race I ever saw on television. It is also the track at which I first covered a race on a press credential.
Going into the race weekend, the new curbs and the softer tires were the biggest stories. The thought was that the tires were going to change up the on-track product. That didn’t really come to pass, at least not from what I saw. The drivers largely feel the same way.
The new curbs played a bigger role. After Friday night’s (Sept. 13) ARCA Menards Series race, I talked to William Sawalich on pit road and asked him about them. He liked them and thought that it could make drivers more aggressive.
At the time, I was thinking about the issue in a mostly defensive fashion. By the time I got back to the media center, I was convinced that someone was going to hit the wall entering the Inner Loop in a key moment. Sure enough, that happened.
Unfortunately for viewers, it was really hard to tell that Shane van Gisbergen had actually clouted the wall on the final lap with the angle used on both the live broadcast and replays. I only found out about it when van Gisbergen did interviews after the race.
Since I was in the media center at the time of the battle, I had a worse vantage point than most of you reading this article. The TVs closest to me were rather far away, so it was difficult to make out such details (also, I don’t have the best eyesight in the world). However, even with a good view, it was hard to make out the wall contact. The booth didn’t notice it live, either. By the time the replay from Chris Buescher’s roof cam showed van Gisbergen’s wall contact, I was already out behind pit road.
During his live call, Leigh Diffey compared the Buescher-van Gisbergen battle to the infamous battle in 2012 between Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose. While this was a thrilling battle, it didn’t have the third party throwing a wrench into the battle like back then, when Bobby Labonte was dropping oil. Unless you want to consider the Armco the third party.
Regardless, Diffey nailed the call of the final lap of the race. This was a great battle, and both drivers came away happy (more or less).
There were some other issues that weren’t covered. Apparently, Zane Smith administered a bump-and-run…
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