Following Kevin Harvick‘s second-straight victory, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to New York for the Go Bowling at the Glen at Watkins Glen International. Let’s dive into the track information NASCAR DFS drivers need to know, what to expect for this weekend’s running of the Go Bowling at the Glen at Watkins Glen and some early NASCAR fantasy picks.
NASCAR DFS Preview: Go Bowling at the Glen
Watkins Glen International Information
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- Track: Watkins Glen International
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- Location: Schuyler County, New York
- Length: 2.45 miles (asphalt)
- Banking: n/a
<li”>Best corollary tracks: Sonoma, Road America
- Dominator Points:
- DraftKings: 22.5 – laps led, 40.5 – fastest laps
- FanDuel: 9 – laps led
- Past winners: Kyle Larson (2021), Chase Elliott (2019)
- Betting favorite: Chase Elliott +500
< li>Entry List: 39 drivers, including Joey Hand (15), A.J. Allmendinger (16), Daniil Kvyat (26), Loris Hezemans (27), Mike Rockenfeller (77) and Kyle Tilley (78)
- Weather: High of 85, a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon
- Watch: USA
- Listen: MRN (MRN, NASCAR.com, NASCAR Sirius/XM Channel 90)
On Track Schedule (All Times Eastern)
- Saturday, August 20
- 12:05 p.m.: practice
- 1:05 p.m.: qualifying
- Sunday, August 21
- 3:00 p.m.: green flag (20/40/90 laps)
2022 Go Bowling at the Glen NASCAR DFS Picks
2022 Points Standings
In the short span of two weeks, Kevin Harvick went from solidly out of the playoffs to firmly entrenched via his second-straight victory of the season. With two races remaining before the playoffs begin at Darlington, Harvick now sits seventh in the standings tied with Denny Hamlin at 2,013 projected playoff points. He joins Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, William Byron, Hamlin and Tyler Reddick with two victories apiece, firmly separating himself from the gaggle of drivers with just one win, on the fringe of making the playoffs. The fringiest of these drivers continues to be Kurt Busch, who has gone a month without adding a single point to his total, missing time due to concussion-related complications from his wreck at Pocono. If two new drivers were to win over these final regular season races at Watkins Glen and Daytona, he would be the odd man out more than likely.
Ryan Blaney held a 19-point lead last week over Martin Truex Jr. for the final playoff spot, a lead that has now grown to 26 points following Richmond. Chances are that Blaney will trade stage points in exchange for the chance to win this race, to help further expand this cushion, but with Truex being a former winner at Watkins Glen, stage points could be a moot point come to the end of the race on Sunday.
NASCAR Watkins Glen International Preview
As stated above, NASCAR returns to northern New York state for 90 laps around the nearly 2.5-mile road course at Watkins Glen. It’s fitting that the NASCAR Cup Series regular season closes out at a road course and superspeedway, but when a sport considers itself more entertainment than sport, it shouldn’t be surprising that the calendar angles itself toward potential chaos. With just one spot in the playoffs remaining for a driver via points, the chaos factor could be in true effect this Sunday.
Generally, especially over the past four races at Watkins Glen, this track has been fairly tepid. Including stage breaks, the past four Watkins Glen Cup events have had four or fewer caution flags thrown. Thus, in the final few years of the Generation Six car, the yellow flags were few and far between for actual action on the track. With its long straightaways and narrow track, Watkins Glen provides few places to actually get “racey” enough to bump and dump a driver. The exceptions are in the first turn, the bus stop and the final two turns. Yet, the track has widened out the asphalt off the track so much, compared to past years, that a loose car doesn’t automatically mean a driver careening into a tire wall. It’s these same factors that have made it fairly tough to pass on Watkins Glen, making pit stop strategy the only real wild card in getting past a driver out front.
This tepidness presents a quandary because the last road course race at Indianapolis was a mess and the fear is that with the playoffs on the line, a typically mundane race could take on shades of chaos. To be honest, looking at the box score of Indianapolis, someone who didn’t watch that race would not think that Indy was all that hectic. However, the choke point in turn-one created multiple issues later in the race as drivers began abusing each other with reckless abandon to the point that the racing resembled a Truck race instead of the Cup Series. If the field hadn’t been restacked late in the race, the tight turn-one probably is of no concern. However, when nearly 40 cars all try to squeeze together through one area, chaos is what everyone should expect to see.
Watkins Glen Lineup Construction
If Sunday’s event is going to look like a typical Watkins Glen race, then DFS players should be looking to build around one to two dominators with the rest of the lineups filled with driving who will score points via place differential and finishing position points. On the other hand, if drivers are going to press the envelope late, like at Indianapolis, then a late restart could result in another pileup into turn-one. Should this be the case, having rules in a lineup builder in regards to minimum salary will be a hindrance.
Pictured above are the optimal DraftKings and FanDuel lineups from the four Cup Series road course races in 2022. Besides each of these optimal lineups, regardless of site, having the top lap leader in them, despite the lack of laps, it can’t be overstated to look at the salary cap used in each of these lineups. Road races have taken on a superspeedway aspect to them, and the optimal lineups are reflecting this uptick in variance.
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