NASCAR Watkins Glen Schedule: Practice, Qualifying, Line-Up, Tickets, Where and When to Watch

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are rolling into New York this weekend at the Watkins Glen International. After a thrilling oval race in Atlanta, the drivers will have to find their way through the challenging 2.45-mile road course venue. And with just two races left in the Round of 16, the pressure will be on the drivers to deliver the goods.

Watkins Glen is going to be busy throughout the weekend as it will host ARCA and the Xfinity Series race along with the main event. So it’s fair to say the race fans will be treated to an entertaining weekend of stock car racing. Below we have listed all the details of the schedule so you do not miss out on your favorite events and races.

Where to watch the Watkins Glen NASCAR playoffs race?

The entirety of Friday, September 13 will be occupied by the ARCA race, which includes practice sessions and qualifying in the afternoon. By evening, the main event will kick off, and fans will be able to catch the live action of the race through FS1.

On Saturday, the racetrack will be very busy with a mix of Xfinity and Cup Series events scheduled together. An early kick-off to the day will see Xfinity drivers and the teams roll into practice and qualifying sessions. The NBC Sports app will stream the practice and qualifying session for the Xfinity event.

The Cup Series practice and qualifying sessions will get underway. A total of 38 drivers are listed to enter the race, 34 full-timers, and four others. Fans will be able to witness these events through the NBC Sports app. Following the conclusion of qualifying rounds and once the grid is set for Sunday’s race, the pre-race telecast for the Xfinity race will begin on USA Network.

Sunday is all reserved for the blockbuster event, the second playoff Cup Series race. Go Bowling at the Glen event will kickstart at 2:30 p.m. with the pre-race coverage. The race goes green at 3:00 p.m.; all the on-track action will be made available on the USA Network for the TV audience. Meanwhile, the NBC Sports App will be live-streaming the event simultaneously.

There’s still time for those who haven’t gotten their tickets. The value of them could range anywhere between $64.98 and $130. It all depends on the type of seating you want at the venue. For those who want a premium experience, they can opt for VIP tickets that start at $1,025 per person. Although road course races often come with thrills and surprises, this year’s Watkins Glen race is a whole other ball game for the race car drivers.

The Goodyear tire experiment adds a layer

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NASCAR decided to throw an extra bit of spice to an already chaotic playoff race at Watkins Glen. Making passes with the Next Gen race car has become an issue for the drivers on the road course. Get the track position and maintain it; that has been the strategy the teams have been following so far. But, they will need to tweak that or face a similar result like the Bristol Night Race early in the season.

The new tire compound is expected to create a three-second worth of lap-time fall-off. This means drivers will need to conserve their tires to make it to the end and force them into making strategy calls. Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick, and Daniel Suarez were the ones who participated in the tire test back in June. Cindric recently opened up about the test and shared his take on how the new compound could affect racing on Sunday.

“Maybe the inside car has a more bit of an advantage. I feel it also gives the inside car a lot of leverage on the outside car if something’s going to take the grip away or, you know, a worse area for a car to be placed of this runoff is difficult to drive through. The car on the inside can probably shove that guy into the runoff.” Austin Cindric mentioned this to Bob Pockrass.

Not only that, there are changes to the layout of the track with rumble strips replacing the curbs on multiple turns of the racing surface. It will be interesting to see how these new changes pan out and how significantly they impact the overall results of the race.