Watkins Glen NASCAR 2010

The main event starts Sunday at 1:00 Eastern (GMT -4 ?)

Who's watching?

Carl Edwards qualified on pole this morning significantly ahead of the rest of the pack. I'm picking Tony Stewart to win it (his last 6 starts here have resulted in 4x 1st place and 2x 2nd place finishes) though Marcos Ambrose has a decent chance of getting his first NASCAR win here and Juan Pablo Montoya also has a good chance at his second.

Qualifying this year came close (a tenth of a second off) to finally breaking the record set prior to adopting the "Car of Tomorrow" so we may see a fast race, and with the removal of many of the gravel traps hopefully the full course cautions will be kept to a minimum.

I can haz live stream?

Here it's on ESPN, I have no idea about streaming it.

Well Montoya won it. Marcos Ambrose had tire problems late in the race which dropped him back to 3rd, and Tony Stewart never really seemed to get going this outing.

Since NASCAR and the Grand-Am series both raced on the same course this weekend I took the opportunity to compare the laptimes. The best NASCAR Sprint Cup cars are running laps at an average speed of around 124mph while the fastest Grand-Am GT cars are running around 122mph.

[quote=wwgkd;945048] The best NASCAR Sprint Cup cars are running laps at an average speed of around 124mph while the fastest Grand-Am GT cars are running around 122mph.[/quote]

Doesn't Grand Am run the full track configuration like Indy does? If so then they have what like 4 more corners to go thru while the Cup cars get that nice long straight

[quote=Cobrafan427;945068]Doesn't Grand Am run the full track configuration like Indy does? If so then they have what like 4 more corners to go thru while the Cup cars get that nice long straight[/quote]

Grand Am runs the 'boot' course earlier in the season which is the 6 hour race, the second race at the Glen is on the Cup course.

[quote=wwgkd;945048]Well Montoya won it. Marcos Ambrose had tire problems late in the race which dropped him back to 3rd, and Tony Stewart never really seemed to get going this outing.

Since NASCAR and the Grand-Am series both raced on the same course this weekend I took the opportunity to compare the laptimes. The best NASCAR Sprint Cup cars are running laps at an average speed of around 124mph while the fastest Grand-Am GT cars are running around 122mph.[/quote]

NASCAR pole time: 70.8 seconds, 124mph

Grand Am pole: 65.7, 134mph

Makes one wonder what an ALMS/LMS car can do at the Glen, since Mosport is just as long but with fewer straights (and faster corners for the most part). At Mosport, an Audi R10 did a 138 mph lap, so I'd have to say that they'd easily do well over 140 at Watkins Glen.

However, for a long time, NASCAR stock cars (namely the Pre-COT Sprint Cup cars) weren't that much slower than the DPs.

[quote=Chernaudi;945131]Makes one wonder what an ALMS/LMS car can do at the Glen, since Mosport is just as long but with fewer straights (and faster corners for the most part). At Mosport, an Audi R10 did a 138 mph lap, so I'd have to say that they'd easily do well over 140 at Watkins Glen.

However, for a long time, NASCAR stock cars (namely the Pre-COT Sprint Cup cars) weren't that much slower than the DPs.[/quote]

As Dino posted the DPs are only running 134mph, how much faster are the LMPs? I'd be surprised if they got too far over 140 at the Glen, I thought their biggest problem was that they weren't fast enough to outrun the ugly.

Did not know that. With the DP cars running 10 mph faster now, it does pretty well illustrate why nobody likes the COT.

[quote=wwgkd;945223]As Dino posted the DPs are only running 134mph, how much faster are the LMPs? I'd be surprised if they got too far over 140 at the Glen, I thought their biggest problem was that they weren't fast enough to outrun the ugly.

Did not know that. With the DP cars running 10 mph faster now, it does pretty well illustrate why nobody likes the COT.[/quote]

It really doesn't matter because there is no one for them to race. ALMS is broken and who knows when it will be fixed.