Everett Ogilvie

For Grand Am qualifying the pole was a 65.9 second lap. The top GT time was something like 74 or 75 seconds. NASCAR Cup qualifying is happening right now and it is early in the session and the times are already 69 or 70 seconds.

I am frankly amazed at how close the CUP cars are to a DP on a road course, or I should say on THIS road course. I think the 2.45 mile configuration (without the boot section) FAVORS the high horsepower Cup cars more than a DP car. There are just enough long sections and just few enough turns that the Cup car shines and gets closer than normal to a DP type car. I am also surprised that the GT cars are not even close to the Cup cars (again, horsepower).

drivinhard

900+ hp cures a lot of handling ills

TLGunman

Now if they could just put a cup engine in a DP...

Everett Ogilvie

Yep, that would be the dream car.

Short-Throw

Yes, then they'd have a car like yours!

JDIllon

Or a cup engine in a GTcar!! OH! that would be a car like yours!! LOL! JD

Falcon

Yep, a carbureted engine in a DP car.

Everett Ogilvie

If only I had YOUR motor!

And gearbox

And....

Painrace

The Glen is fast in almost any car.

Now, you guys all have fast cars or is it the driver?

Jim

TLGunman

Lets make it a 2012 cup motor, to it at least has fuel injection.

63Corvette

My opinion is that Watkins Glen is a fabulous course, BUT everyone should have to run the full course. The full course WITH the boot is what makes it special, and the NASCAR guys wouldn't be so brave coming out of the heel of the boot with no runoff and the wall right there.

Everett Ogilvie

I think they will eventually add the boot for the NASCAR races, which begs the question of adding the full course at Infineon as well. I also think they will eventually add a road course in The Chase. There is no doubt in my mind that it should be Road America, and Kyle Petty voiced the same opinion today. We can only hope.

AU N EGL

dont they use the short course, without the boot for this weekend?

ZoomFreakinZoom

The best thing to watch was where the Sprint Cup guys start braking at, it was so strange to see them hitting the brakes 300-400 feet before the slowest GT car.

Everett Ogilvie

Makes perfect sense - heavier car going a lot faster = brake earlier. Like I said - CUP cars lapping 4 to 5 seconds quicker than the GT cars.

One interesting thing from the coverage yesterday; Boris Said always coaches the Cup drivers and they had him describing all the turns and he told the Cup driver to brake sooner going into the Bus Stop (as opposed to braking harder later) but to keep the corner speed/momentum higher and get on the throttle sooner.

Painrace

Yes. I too wish they used the full course.

Jim

mgarfias

Didnt they run the full course years ago? I remember when they added the bypass to sears point, that was lame.

napacruzerc5

They won't run the full course since they want the cars to go by the fans more often in shorter laps. At least that's what they said when they first shortened the course st Sears Point (and I hate calling it Infineon). If I remember right the old time TransAm cars were running close to 2 minutes on the long course.

drivinhard

I am not a Glen regular (about 4 events in '02 and '03) but I have heard the saying many times without the boot, the glen has no soul. I'd have to say the boot wasn't the exciting part of the track to me, more technical, but nothing that was "fantastic". The pucker stuff is everywhere else (other than getting down into the boot maybe). I think running the short course would be pretty fun due to the high speeds.