By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Playoff opportunities are diminishing with three races left in the regular season

With only three regular season races remaining to decide which 16 drivers will compete in the 2025 Playoffs, the intensity is picking up and Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (2 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) road course event will undoubtedly be full of the kind of action expected at this point in the season.

Ross Chastain, driver of the #1 Busch Light Chevrolet, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on September 14, 2024 in Watkins Glen, New York. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

The question is whether a driver currently below the Playoff cut line lands the ultimate big moment and claims the win Sunday?

Some of the sport’s best road course competitors from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs to Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell to Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch and Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger are all still outside the Playoff cutoff line and winless on the season. A victory this weekend for any of them would have huge Playoff implications – for themselves and for others.

Gibbs won the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at The Glen. Coming from a sports car background, McDowell is a highly touted road course ace with a win on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in 2023. Busch has a NASCAR Cup (2013) and Xfinity Series win (2017) at the track and Allmendinger – a three-time NASCAR Cup Series-road course winner – scored his first career victory there in 2014.

Count the defending race winner, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher also among those road course stars needing a big showing at the historic 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International. Last year Buescher held off the sport’s reigning road course ace, Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen in extra laps to claim the win.

This season, van Gisbergen shows up in upstate New York with three road course victories and a Playoff berth already this season while Buescher is ranked a tenuous 16th place in the standings, only 23 points up on his RFK teammate Ryan Preece and the first to potentially drop out of Playoff points should a new winner claim Sunday’s trophy at The Glen.

Eight active drivers have wins at Watkins Glen. And in addition to Buescher, Busch and Allmendinger, include last week’s winner William Byron (2023), his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson (2021-22) and Chase Elliott (2019-2020), Denny Hamlin (2016) and Joey Logano (2015).

Byron’s win last weekend at Iowa also keeps an intense battle atop the standings. The reigning back-to-back Daytona 500 winner holds a slim 18-point advantage over his teammate Elliott for the Regular Season Championship and the 15-point bonus. Their Hendrick teammate, Larson, is only 45 points back.

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick holds the highest points-position in the standings among those without a win – 122 points up on 17th place Preece. Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman is ranked 15th, 63 points above the cutoff line, followed by Buescher in that perilous 16th position.

It’s a unique situation for the three-car RFK operation with Buescher and Preece fighting at the cutoff line and team co-owner Brad Keselowski, whose season has been buoyed by three top-10s in the last three weeks, all essentially needing a win for Playoff security.

“To be honest with you, Chris and I race really well together, so I think we have enough respect for each other on the racetrack to do it the right way, and we’re gonna race hard,” said Preece, who drives the No. 60 RFK Ford Mustang. “I think between this week and next week, I think both of us – he sees Watkins Glen as a great opportunity to go win and get himself in and the way I need to race it is gonna change throughout that race.

“From there, that will lead into Richmond and if the points battle is really close going into Daytona, obviously, we’re gonna take care of each other when it comes to superspeedways and the last few laps you’ve just got to do the best you can to try and win that race. So, I’m not really entirely sure of how to approach it, other than the way we’ve been doing it all year, which is take care of each other and race each other with a lot of respect and don’t wreck each other.”

Also, on the grid this weekend are road racing standouts, 19-year-old Connor Zilisch in the No. 87 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet and Katherine Legge, who scored a career best 17th-place finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway two weeks ago, in the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet. Zilisch is competing in all three races at The Glen.

Practice is Saturday at 12:05 p.m. ET followed immediately by Busch Light Pole Qualifying. Both are available on truTV, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Ross Chastain won pole position for last year’s race.

Connor Zilisch returns to where it all began in Xfinity Series

It’s a highly-anticipated trip to upstate New York for 19-year-old JR Motorsports rookie Connor Zilisch. He returns to Watkins Glen International as the defending winner of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Mission 200 at The Glen (3 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – claiming the very first NASCAR victory of his career in his first ever NASCAR national series start there last summer.

The driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet boasts a series-best five wins in his first fulltime season and is tied with his teammate, reigning series champ Justin Allgaier atop the championship standings at 772 points each. Their JR Motorsports team has won all four road course events this season – with three different drivers, including Zilisch who won at Circuit of The Americas and Sonoma Raceway. 

Sam Mayer, 22, delivered the Haas Factory Team its first victory last week at Iowa Speedway and has earned four of his eight career series trophies on road courses, including Watkins Glen in 2023. He’s only 16 points behind the JR Motorsports teammates Zilisch and Allgaier atop the standings.

With three races remaining to set the 12-driver Playoff field, eight drivers have now secured automatic shots at the big trophy via victory. With Mayer’s win, JR Motorsports driver Carson Kvapil now holds the top transfer position based on points – he’s 93 points above the Playoff cutoff line – but Mayer’s teammate Sheldon Creed is only 11 points off that mark.

Harrison Burton still holds onto the last points transfer spot with a 17-point margin over Ryan Sieg, and is 19-points up on his cousin Jeb Burton.

Of note, Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Hill – a two-time winner on the season – returns to competition after serving a one-race suspension last week. But if granted a Playoff waiver (as expected) he will not be able to take any Playoff points into the championship hunt.

The New Zealander van Gisbergen will drive the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in his third Xfinity Series start of the year. He has three road course wins in the NASCAR Cup Series already in 2025 in addition to his Chicago win-from-pole in the Xfinity Series. A win at Watkins Glen would tie Van Gisbergen with Australian Marcos Ambrose for most victories (five) in the series by a foreign-born driver. He and his young teammate Zilisch have won seven of the last nine road course races.

On-track activity starts Saturday morning with practice at 9:30 a.m. followed immediately by Kennametal Pole Qualifying. Both sessions are available on the CW App.

CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races at The Glen for third time in last 25 years

For the first time in five years and only third time since 2000, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will compete at Watkins Glen International with the Mission 176 at The Glen Friday afternoon (5 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to start NASCAR’s tripleheader weekend.

Current NASCAR Xfinity Series championship contender Austin Hill won the last truck race at the iconic New York road course in 2021 fending off now-NASCAR Cup Series driver John Hunter Nemechek and Hill’s fellow Xfinity Series regular Sheldon Creed for the trophy. You have to go all the way back to 2000 for the previous truck race at The Glen, won from pole position by Greg Biffle.

Returning from a week-off, the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series has only two races remaining to set the 10-driver Playoff field. Seven drivers have already secured their championship opportunity through victories this season leaving three positions open to points heading into the weekend.

TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim holds a commanding 143-point lead on Front Row Motorsports’ Chandler Smith for the Regular Season Championship. Grant Enfinger, Kaden Honeycutt and reigning series champion Ty Majeski currently hold the three points positions inside the Playoff cut. Majeski is 61 points above Jake Garcia for that 10th Playoff entry. A new winner this weekend could certainly dramatically change the Playoff outlook.

Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs is coming off his second win in the series’ last three races claiming the trophy at Indianapolis Raceway Park two weeks ago. Heim won the only previous road course race of the season at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park.

Notably, four NASCAR Cup Series drivers are entered this weekend including Christopher Bell, who will drive the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota for the injured Stewart Friesen. Kaden Honeycutt, who has driven for Niece Motorsports this season, will drive the remainder of the season’s races for the Halmar Friesen team.

Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain will team with Zilisch – who is doing triple-duty – in the pair of Niece Motorsports Chevrolets.

Kyle Busch (No. 07 Spire Motorsports) and defending NACAR Cup Series race winner Chris Buescher (No. 66 ThorSport Racing) are also on the grid along with Xfinity Series standout Sammy Smith (No. 7 Spire Motorsports).

Practice is at 11:35 a.m. ET Friday morning followed immediately by Kennametal Pole Qualifying. FS2 will televise both sessions.