NASCAR is heading to Watkins Glen International for the second playoff race of the first round. This is the first time the 2.45-mile road course has made its way into the playoffs. However, this is not going to be your usual Watkins Glen race. NASCAR has introduced a new tire compound with a 3-second wear-off rate. Amid the tricky driving of a road course, teams now also have to be mindful of their tire management to ace the race.

And to make matters worse, a second road course besides the Charlotte ROVAL allows teams to bring out their road course ringers. There are quite a few road course masters going into the Watkins Glen race with nothing to lose. These drivers can surely upset the playoff field at this crucial stage of the season. However, Hendrick Motorsports’s Chase Elliott is least bothered about them.

First on the list is Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen, who is one driver to look out for when it comes to road courses. Currently driving full-time in the Xfinity Series, SVG has some notable season wins this year and has just finished P5 on the track in the Shriners Children’s 200. Surprisingly, all have come on road courses. Van Gisbergen, in his Cup Series debut last year, also won at the Chicago Street race. This has led to many crowning him the road-course king.

However, a defeat on the track should not have him being dismissed as a threat going into the Cup Series playoff race at the track. For the Cup race, the Kiwi has qualified in the 3rd place and will now be looking for redemption. However, Chase Elliott does not believe in being varied among the road course ringers.

In a pre-race interview with Frontstretch, Chase Elliott was asked how having so many “good road course ringers” could change the stakes for him. Replying positively to this, Elliott said, “Yeah you know.. I, over the course of my time and have been through that you know a few times. It does not change anything for us and it really does us no good to sit there and look at that. We’ve got to run our weekend and it doesn’t change our goals it doesn’t change our approach it just doesn’t. it is what it is.”

According to Shane van Gisbergen, the preparation remains the same regardless of who’s driving in the race. The #9 is a firm believer in putting his best foot forward in every race, no matter what. “It just doesn’t impact our weekend as we prep for it prepare for it. So as I look at the weekend regardless of who’s in the event my mindset doesn’t change. That’s no different this time versus any other week that you, we have guys running one-off races,” Chase Elliott added.

Like SVG, A.J. Allmendinger can also prove to be a roadblock for the 16 playoff drivers. Throughout his career, Allmendinger has many times proved his road course prowess. Out of his last six Cup Series races on road courses, five have been top-6 finishes. His last road course victory came at the Charlotte ROVAL in 2023, taking his total tally of road course wins to 11 at a NASCAR-sanctioned event. Not to mention the win came by 0.666 seconds over William Byron. Out of these three have come in the Cup Series. In his last Cup Series Watkins race, the veteran finished in P4. The No. 16 Chevy was also there in the recent Xfinity race at the Glen and finished in P3 at the track.

Chase Elliott might not see him as a threat, but he very much is! In the upcoming race, Allmendinger will be starting from P6, hoping to get his first Cup Series win of the season. Maybe Elliott is not worried because of Hendrick Motorsport’s dominance at Watkins Glen International in past years. And it was Elliott who commenced it!

Hendrick Motorsports stellar record at the WGI

In the last six years, “The Glen” has been a stronghold of HMS.

• Chase Elliott began the streak when he won in 2018, fending off defending champion Martin Truex Jr. at the end of the race.
• In 2019, Elliott got a back-to-back win at the track. But then in 2020, the race was canceled because of COVID-19.
• The dominance continued after Kyle Larson followed in the footsteps of Elliott winning the race back-to-back (2021, 2022).
• Last time, William Byron joined the list after a dominating performance in the 2023 race as he took the chequered flag.

However, it is worth noting that other than Byron, none of the Hendrick drivers had a good run in last year’s Watkins Glen race. Elliott finished the race in 32nd position, Kyle Larson finished 26th, and lastly, Alex Bowman came in 23rd position. Hopefully, this year won’t be a repeat of the last, as it could be detrimental to their chances in the playoffs.

Kyle Larson, after crashing out early of the Atlanta race, is currently in the 10th position in the playoffs. He is only +15 points above the cutoff line. On the other hand, Elliott is in the 8th position, being 24 points above the cutoff line. While Byron and Bowman are more comfortably placed in the 5th and 6th positions.

Elliott, speaking of the reason behind HMS’s dominance on the track, has said, “Yeah, we had a test there maybe my rookie year or maybe shortly after that. It was already a good road course package before I got there, so it wasn’t like we created something out of thin air. We had a good basis, but there was one particular test that we developed a good package for, and we built off that.” 

Going into the race, qualifying has not been ideal for the team except for Bowman, who’ll be starting from P4, Byron in P11, Elliott in 14th, and Larson in 20th. Maybe we can see a 6th consecutive win for Mr. H and his team but this time for a new driver; Alex Bowman, as his teammates already have won here.

Do you think HMS can continue their streak, or will someone break it?