I Love NASCAR Road Racing... part 2!!

Watkins Glen is home to the second and last NASCAR Sprint Cup road course race of the year and the fast, flowing former Grand Prix circuit is as far away from the large hills and kerbs of Sonoma, as upstate New York is from upstate California.

I am always surprised by how good Cup cars look at Watkins Glen. They look at home on the fast esses, and race well through the inner loop, and over the left / right section ending the lap. The first corner at the Glen is an action point too, with the downhill entry and camber causing havoc.

Its also interesting to see how the oval racing etiquette transfers to a road course. The last two corners are a great example of this, with loads of room for 2 wide racing, and the cross-over overtaking method. The first corner on the other hand can be quite tight if the cars are 2 wide, with the car on the inside having to move over to give the outside car room before they run into the armco, approaching the esses. Unless your name is Boris Said.

To be fair to Said, he obviously didn't mean to run Smoke into the wall, he just assumed that the 14 had slotted in behind him. There was one slight problem with this idea; this is a NASCAR race and in NASCAR if you are an inch alongside then you are given the room to race. Said thought like a road racer, and in road racing the idea of giving another driver room to race is alien. As is listening to a spotter, who in Saids case was telling him that Stewart was still alongside him.

Other drivers caused problems by trying to go round the last corner 3 wide, resulting in JJ spinning, and Hamlin having nowhere to go but into the 48.

So it was left to JPM, and Marcos Ambrose to show us how to drive a stock car through right and left turns, and what a display it was. Montoya dominated the race and was able to pull out a gap on most restarts and keep it. Ambrose had a tougher day, battling with JPM for a while, and with Kurt Busch at the end.

Other road course "experts", like Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon did not have as good a day as the 42, with both struggling. The Busch brothers both showed promise, with Kurt grabbing second from Ambrose late on, and Kyle working his way up from the back to a top 10 finish.

I have said this before but... I love that the Sprint Cup has two road course races, no more, no less.

Should one be in the Chase?? I think so!!

So now its on to Michigan as the season gets closer to the Chase. I hope the Ganassi drivers can keep the momentum up and I hope Harvick can hold on to the top spot.

Will Johnson get his drive for 5 back on track?? Will Jeff Gordon end his winless streak?? Will the 88 ever look like it deserves to be in the show?? Will Stewart get his summer form back on track??

Whatever happens... it will be fun to watch!!