Race Winner: Chris Buescher of RFK Racing (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)
SHR Finish:
● Chase Briscoe (Started 12th, Finished 6th / Running, completed 92 of 92 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 21st, Finished 9th / Running, completed 92 of 92 laps)
● Noah Gragson (Started 9th, Finished 11th / Running, completed 92 of 92 laps)
● Josh Berry (Started 31st, Finished 25th / Running, completed 92 of 92 laps)
SHR Points:
● Chase Briscoe (11th with 2,049 points, six points ahead of top-12 cutoff)
● Josh Berry (24th with 481 points)
● Noah Gragson (25th with 460 points)
● Ryan Preece (27th with 442 points)
Playoff Standings (with one race to go before Round of 12):
1. Joey Logano (2,084 points) 1 win
2. Christopher Bell (2,089 points) +46 points
3. Austin Cindric (2,086 points) +43 points
4. Alex Bowman (2,084 points) +41 points
5. Daniel Suarez (2,079 points) +36 points
6. Tyler Reddick (2,073 points) +30 points
7. Chase Elliott (2,073 points) +30 points
8. Ryan Blaney (2,072 points) +29 points
9. Kyle Larson (2,069 points) +26 points
10. William Byron (2,068 points) +25 points
11. Chase Briscoe (2,049 points) +6 points
12. Ty Gibbs (2,049 points) +6 points
13. Denny Hamlin (2,043 points) -6 points
14. Brad Keselowski (2,037 points) -12 points
15. Martin Truex Jr. (2,035 points) -14 points
16. Harrison Burton (2,029 points) -20 points
SHR Notes:
● Briscoe earned his eighth top-10 of the season and his second top-10 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Watkins Glen.
● Today’s finish equaled Briscoe’s best road-course result in the NASCAR Cup Series. He finished sixth in 2021 at both Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
● Briscoe’s sixth-place result bettered his previous best finish at Watkins Glen – ninth, earned in his first NASCAR Cup Series start at the track in 2021.
● Briscoe finished third in Stage 1 to earn eight bonus points and seventh in Stage 2 to earn four more bonus points.
● Preece earned his third top-10 of the season and his first top-10 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Watkins Glen.
● This was Preece’s third straight result of 18th or better. He finished 12th Sept. 1 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway and 18th last Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
● Preece’s ninth-place result bettered his previous best finish at Watkins Glen – 17th, earned last year.
● Preece finished ninth in Stage 2 to earn two bonus points.
● Gragson earned his 13th top-15 of the season and it came in his first career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Watkins Glen.
● This was Gragson’s best road-course finish in the NASCAR Cup Series. His previous best was 14th, earned in July in the Grant Park 165 on the streets of downtown Chicago.
● This was Berry’s milestone 40th career NASCAR Cup Series start.
● This was Berry’s best road-course finish in the NASCAR Cup Series. His previous best was 32nd, earned in June at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
Race Notes:
● Chris Buescher won the Go Bowling at The Glen to score his sixth career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Watkins Glen. His margin of victory over second-place Shane Van Gisbergen was .979 of a second.
● Buescher was the 15th different winner in the 28 NASCAR Cup Series races run this season.
● This was Ford’s 737th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory, its eighth of the season and its fourth straight. Ford driver Harrison Burton won Aug. 24 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Briscoe won Sept. 1 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, and Joey Logano won last Sunday at Atlanta.
● This was Ford’s ninth NASCAR Cup Series victory at Watkins Glen. The manufacturer won its first race at the track on July 18, 1965 with Marvin Panch.
● There were seven caution periods for a total of 21 laps.
● Thirty-one of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Sound Bites:
“It was huge. It’s what we needed to do – score stage points and run good in the race, and we were able to do that. It was a really good, solid day for our HighPoint.com Ford. I felt like I could’ve gotten a couple more points, but just didn’t want to risk it there at the end. I knew I was in a pretty good position compared to a lot of the field, so we did what we needed to do and now we just need to go do that same thing next week. We need to just hit singles and doubles and don’t do anything crazy. As long as we just execute all day long, it should be enough. We’ll just go on to Bristol and see what we can do.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“The day didn’t start out very well, but it got a lot better. It was pretty chaotic and, ultimately, we had a pretty good car. Track position was everything today. Knowing where we were and never having it. Chad (Johnston, crew chief) was aggressive on the strategy and made the right calls to get us track position and we kept it. Ultimately, we got the race finish that we deserved, even with those late-race cautions” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 Mohawk Northeast Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“I just had a good practice and qualifying and tried to figure this place out. I’d never raced here, so I lost some spots early in the race. Then we worked really hard getting track position. Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) and the rest of the Bed Bath & Beyond team called a great race, strategy-wise. I just need to clean some stuff up on my part. But I’m grateful for this team.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Bed Bath & Beyond Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“We had, honestly, a really good day, I just hate that we didn’t finish where we should’ve. We were poised there to take an easy top-10, which would’ve been a great improvement for us, but unfortunately it just didn’t pan out there at the end. Everybody did a great job and we’ll get ready for the next one.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Bed Bath & Beyond Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, Sept. 21 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The third race in the 10-race NASCAR Playoffs starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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