Parks Pit Report: Cheez-It 355 at the Glen

It’s not very often that a race can have so many weird twists and turns, both during and even before the actual event.  Entering Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen, the race and overall season took a dramatic twist as Tony Stewart, a big favorite to win at this track, suddenly was on the outside looking in.  His accident on Monday in a sprint car turned his season upside down, as a broken leg landed him in the hospital.

Now, he’s not even going to be mentioned in the title hunt, as his injury ultimately is sidelining him for an undetermined amount of time, but long enough where his title hopes are done for the season.

Max Papis, another road course expert, was tabbed for substituting in the No. 14 car at the Glen, having performed a test for the team at Road Atlanta earlier this year.  But entering next week’s race at Michigan, there is no knowledge of who will be in the car in that race, or moving forward in the year.  Sunday was the first race without Stewart in the field since the season-finale at Atlanta in 1998, which these days is just unthinkable.

Without a doubt, everyone is wishing him a speedy recovery, but with his injury, only time will heal it.

Then in the race itself, everything lined up that pole sitter Marcos Ambrose was going to win this race.  He won the pole with a new track record, and was the two-year defending winner of the race.  At one point he had over half the laps led, and just was practically on cruise control.  But a mid-race caution changed that outlook as pit stops were ongoing.

With him not pitting under green, he was forced to come for service under caution, and that put him in the middle of the pack, meaning for the first time he needed to work through traffic, and with these new cars and at a road course with few passing zones, it was a challenge.

He restarted 14th, and was going for 10th with just a few laps to go, and seemed to be right in the hunt to get up there.

But ultimately, he went too hard, and was hit from behind by Papis, going into the guardrail and ending what was a strong run, one that he could have won.

It’s always the races that get away that everyone will remember, it’s the same with any driver.  Dale Earnhardt could have won four or five Daytona 500 races in his career, but instead those were ones that got away.  Ambrose now has two road course races that he can say got away from him, one of his doing and another because of being in the wrong spot.

Definitely a tough week for both Ambrose and Stewart.  All that can happen now is moving forward, things get better.  Sometimes they will take longer to recover from, and others will take longer to get over.

RESULTS:  1-Kyle Busch  2-Keselowski  3-Truex Jr.  4-Edwards  5-Montoya  6-Bowyer  7-Logano  8-Johnson  9-Kurt Busch  10-Allmendinger

NOTABLE FINISHES:  13-Harvick  16-Biffle  19-Hamlin  20-Patrick  30-Earnhardt Jr.  34-Kahne  36-Gordon

CAUTIONS:  8 for 21 laps.  Lap 8-8 (#83 Stalled-6), 15-18 (#24 Accident-T4), 36-38 (#35 Slow), 41-42 (#33, 36, 87, 93 Accident-BS [Red Flag:  Lap 41-22 Mins, 11 Secs.]), 61-63 (#43 Accident-T5), 79-80 (#38 Accident-T4), 82-84 (#5, 7, 20, 31, 24, 88 Accident-T4), 86-88 (#9, 14, 55 Accident-T3).

LEAD CHANGES:  5 among 5 drivers.  Ambrose 1-28, Montoya 29, McMurray 30, Harvick 31-38, Ambrose 39-61, Kyle Busch 62-90.

TIME OF RACE:  2 Hrs, 32 Mins, 4 Secs.

AVERAGE SPEED:  87.001 MPH

MARGIN OF VICTORY:  0.486 Seconds

POINTS (Top-10, Wild Cards):  1. Johnson, 808 points*; 2. Bowyer, -75; 3. Edwards, -80; 4. Harvick, -101; 5. Kyle Busch, -115; 6. Earnhardt Jr, -138; 7. Kenseth, -149; 8. Keselowski, -174; 9. Biffle, -181; 10. Truex Jr, -183.  WC1-Kahne (12th, 2 wins), WC2-Newman (14th, 1 win).

*Clinched spot in 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup