The NASCAR Busch Series returns to The Glen this weekend after a four-year absence for the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International, a 2.45-mile road course with 11 turns in Watkins Glen, New York. It’s the second time the Busch teams will race at a road course in 2005, which is a series first. Race coverage begins Saturday at 2 pm.
The Busch series began competing at the Glen in 1991. Road course specialist Ron Fellows, who will pilot the No. 43 Bully Hill Vineyards Chevrolet in Saturday’s race, won three of the last four races here: 2001, 2000 and 1998. Among the field of 53 drivers entered in the 2005 event, Fellows joins a host other road course aces, including Scott Pruett, Boris Said, and Jorge Goeters, who won the pole at the other Busch Series road course race this year in Mexico City.
Other items to note heading into Saturday’s race:
- In addition to the road course “ringers,” there are a number of Nextel Cup regulars who are also entered into the race, including Brian Vickers, Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle, Travis Kvapil, Joe Nemecheck, Robby Gordon, Dale Jarrett, and Michael Waltrip.
I am not a big fan of road couarse racing. I think they could spice it up a bit by making the track variable throughout the race. Some times there is a chicane, sometimes not. Sometimes there is a 180 degree turn, othertimes you have a short straight at that spot before the next turn.
I know, it will never happen, and it's a kind of like Saturday Night at a quarter-mile figure 8 track, but at least it would make the road racing less of a line-'em-up affair.