Every Position At A Premium
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, leads a group of cars during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen at Watkins Glen International on Aug. 15 in Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Credit: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images for NASCAR
Our prayers go out to those injured and the person that lost their life at Pocono this past weekend. We wish everyone a speedy recovery and offer our condolences to the family of the deceased.
This week the Cup Series heads to Watkins Glen International for the second and final road-course race of the season. With only five races remaining before the Chase begins, every position will be at a premium and a win could vault somebody into the chance to win a Championship.
Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen
Marcos Ambrose: Marcos is my pick to win this week’s race at Watkins Glen. In four career starts here he has never finished worse than third. He won this race last year, and in his first ever start here, he came from the 43rd starting position to finish 3rd in the race.
Juan Pablo Montoya: Juan has struggled most of this season, but he won the pole for last week’s race at Pocono. He has three straight top ten finished at this track and won this race two years ago.
Tony Stewart: With five career victories at this track and a runner-up finish earlier this year at Sonoma, Tony is going to be one of the favorites to get another win this weekend. That would give him a series leading fourth win as we near the Chase.
Jeff Gordon: Jeff has always run well on the road-course tracks. He just moved into the final wildcard spot with his win at Pocono last week, but he holds a very slim lead over both Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch for that spot.
Clint Bowyer: Clint won the race at Sonoma this season and has shown that he is consistent on these tracks. However, he does run much better at Sonoma than he does at Watkins Glen.
Kyle Busch: Kyle took a hit last week at Pocono. finishing 33rd after an accident, and dropping four spots in the standings. He is currently on the outside looking in at the Chase, but he is only 12-points behind Jeff Gordon for the last wildcard spot.
Carl Edwards: Carl has been having a very disappointing season thus far, but he can turn it around with a win this week at Watkins Glen. He has finished in the top-10 in five of his seven starts here and a win will move him into a wildcard position.
Ryan Newman: Ryan is tied in points and wins with Jeff Gordon right now. All he needs to do is finish in front of Jeff this week and he moves back into the Chase unless Carl Edwards or Kyle Busch wins the race.
Kurt Busch: Kurt had a great run at Sonoma earlier this year and should have a car capable of making a run at a win once again this weekend. A win would be huge for this whole team and might be the difference as to where Kurt will end up next season.
Martin Truex Jr.: Martin has run consistently well all season and was running towards the front for most of the race at Sonoma earlier this year until he got turned around late in that race. This team has what it takes week in and week out to win a race.
Yahoo Fantasy NASCAR Picks for Watkins Glen
Yahoo Driver Group A
- Tony Stewart
- Jeff Gordon
Yahoo Driver Group B
- Marcos Ambrose
- Kurt Busch
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Clint Bowyer
Yahoo Driver Group C
- Brian Vickers
- Sam Hornish Jr.
My Top-5 For Watkins Glen
- Marcos Ambrose
- Tony Stewart
- Kyle Busch
- Jeff Gordon
- Carl Edwards
Dark Horse: Kurt Busch
Stay Away From: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Howdy Jeff,
My prayers go out to Brain Zimmerman from Moosic, Pa. who died from a lighting strike last week at Pocono.
My question is on Brad. I am really liking Brad to finish in the top 5 this week. He started 12th last year and finished 2nd. That was only his 2nd time running here. In 2010 he started 32nd and finished 20th. Each year he gained at least 10 spots. Today in practice Brad come out on top. I like him better than Clint Bowyer.
What do you think of brad vrs Juan?
The first practice was rained out and none of the drivers ran a lot of laps in the late session. NASCAR has scheduled an extra practice session for Saturday. Juan ran very well in practice and just has more experience on this type of track. I would like to see how this extra practice session plays out for both drivers.
The final practice session is over and Montoya was second fastest to Kyle Busch. Montoya is stating that he thinks he has a car that can win the race tomorrow.Qualifying will give us yet another perspective, but I think I will stick with Juan this week.
He took the pole. This might be he’s week. Brad looks like he’ll do well, too
On my last comment I was referring to drivers I’m thinking of using in my NASCAR.com teams. I have to look for a driver deep in the line up that will gain a lot of positions for extra points. Do you have NASCAR.com teams?
I didn’t get a chance to watch any practice or qualifying. I’ve got Montoya in play on a driver group game (Jordan McAbee runs it like a pro! Big props to him, although I am sucking at his game!) where JP is in the D Group. His only competition is Jamie McMurray, Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola and Brian Vickers. Kurt and Brian are starting too far back for my liking. McMurray (just like my complaint on Montoya) is that his team can’t seem to run a full flawless race no matter how well they do in pre-race.
The Blue Deuce team of Keselowski has been far more reliable on lasting until the end.
The pole starting position for Montoya certainly plays in to his favor though.
I lost points on JP last week. I need him to lead a lot of laps for points, for each lap lead (nascar.com) Last week I lost points because he fell back positions and that minuses points. I really hope he can finish in the top 5 w/ a lot of laps lead.
I like Vickers, Burton, and Kurt Busch to move up a lot of spots today.
Howdy jeff,
I took Kyle, Juan, Marcus, Tony, and Boris Said in my NASCAR.com teams. So far so good.
Howdy Jeff,
Juan has let me down 2 weeks in a row. Those 2 weeks are the only times, that I would use Juan. I’ll just have to look at how his season is going for next year, to see if I’ll use him, again.
Brad and Marcos really made the end of the race very exciting. I had Marcos in my “Streak To The Finish” team on NASCAR.com league, I picked him last year, also.
That is why fantasy racing is tough. Mechanical problems are unpredictable and Juan still claimed that he had a car that was good enough to win the race after the arm broke. Everyone has bad weeks in fantasy racing leagues. Just keep on plugging away and be happy you don’t have Jeff Gordon’s luck.