DFS NASCAR: I Love N.Y. 355 Track Breakdown

Sunday brings the second and final road course race of the season at Watkins Glen in the rolling hills of upstate New York. While it is a road course, it is a completely different layout and driving style than the other road course of Sonoma. I have included the top-15 drivers across both just for comparison sake. There are five races left before the Chase begins and several drivers are still in precarious positions on either side of the cut line of the top-16. One thing you’ll notice right off the bat from the data is the large numbers in the position differential column as 11 drivers in the 38-driver field have a better than +6 mark. This is another track with not a lot of laps run so the laps led dominator factor isn’t really in play here.

On a side note, I have included the data for Regan Smith in the full set since he will be filling in for Denny Hamlin in case his wife goes into labor, she’s due August 11.

Track Data

Top-15 Drivers at Watkins Glen International Historically

Top-15 Drivers at Road Courses (since February 2015)

Drivers to watch this week:

Joey Logano: Logano is one of the drivers in a very precarious spot, though he has a win already that was disallowed, and now comes to his strongest track over the last two years. He has an average finish of 1.5 with a win and a runner-up in that span, though he’s only led nine laps too. A +10 mark in PD is a good bonus from the top driver on the track too. He has shown flashes the last few weeks and could very well put it all together for good this Sunday.

Brad Keselowski: Keselowski is the leader in the field with 55 laps led over the last two races at Watkins Glen. He also hasn’t finished worse than seventh in that span and has a third place to go along with it. Unlike his teammate, Logano, he has two wins and isn’t in danger of missing the playoffs, but he still wants a good result for higher seeding. Keselowski has raced here seven times and finished in the top-five four time, which is the highest percentage in the field.

Kyle Busch: Yes he’s on the list again, but when you’re as good as he is, it requires it. He has two wins here in his career and 10 top-10s in 12 tries along with 195 laps led, by far the most. In the last two races Busch has an average finish of fourth including a runner-up to go with seven laps led. He is fresh off his first win in more than a year and he has already declared he expects to go on a roll. That could start this week.

Danica Patrick: A road course usually signals us to use the drivers with open-wheel experience, and Danica certainly fits that bill. Add in her average top-20 finish and a +7.5 PD in the last two races, and her value goes up. She also comes in fourth in laps led with 11 and is in the middle of a four-race streak of top-15 finishes. For less than $6,000 there are certainly worse options to chose.

A.J. Allmendinger: Allmendinger, like Patrick, fits the open-wheel experience mold but has had more success here. He has a top-five finish, fourth, in the last two races along with 21 laps led, good for third in that span. Over eight races at the track in his career, he has a win, three top-fives, and five top-10s with 59 laps led.