{"id":20935,"date":"2018-08-04T18:54:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-04T23:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=20935"},"modified":"2018-08-04T19:05:06","modified_gmt":"2018-08-05T00:05:06","slug":"nascar-saturday-watkins-glen-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/04\/nascar-saturday-watkins-glen-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Watkins Glen Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Karting has accelerated Daniel Suarez\u2019s road course learning curve<\/b><\/p>\n

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. \u2013 Daniel Suarez<\/strong> is a quick study.<\/p>\n

With a racing background that includes very little road course experience, Suarez nevertheless finished third last year at Watkins Glen, his only top-five result in his rookie season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He matched that third-place run earlier this year at Dover and improved his career best by one position last Sunday at Pocono Raceway. In Sunday\u2019s Go Bowling at the Glen (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Suarez will make his second start at the 2.45-mile road course.<\/p>\n

Daniel Suarez – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/WGI_MENCS_Suarez_080418.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

That he has his sights set on another top-five finish at the high-speed road course is emblematic of the 26-year-old Mexican driver\u2019s seamless adaptation to a racing discipline that involves right turns as well as left.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have a lot of road course experience or roval experience when I was young, just go-karts, and that\u2019s pretty much all I did on a road course,\u201d Suarez said on Saturday morning at Watkins Glen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, I jumped pretty much straight to the stock car stuff, which became more ovals than road course racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean, however, that the karting experience wasn\u2019t useful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like go-karts is like the base of everything,\u201d Suarez said. \u201cIt really helps a lot, but it\u2019s very different as well because\u2026 just the weight and the way that it drives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the go-kart, you can do everything extremely fast, and in this car, you have to wait longer, but the basics are the same. I feel that has been helpful to be running well in road course racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

IS MARTIN TRUEX JR. A BONA FIDE ROAD COURSE ACE?<\/b><\/p>\n

Reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. has demonstrated the ability to win on a wide variety of venues.<\/p>\n

Clearly, his superiority on 1.5-mile intermediate tracks can rightly be considered the primary strength of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team. But Truex also is adept at the road courses, as he recent record indicates.<\/p>\n

Martin Truex Jr. – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/WGI_MENCS_TruexJr_080418.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Truex is the defending race winner at Watkins Glen International. He also won at Sonoma in June. And if Truex is first to the finish line in Sunday\u2019s Go Bowling at the Glen (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SIRIUSXM NASCAR Radio), he\u2019ll be the first driver since Tony Stewart in 2004-2005 to win three straight road course events in the Cup series.<\/p>\n

Does that qualify Truex as an elite road course driver? He\u2019ll let others make that judgment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate enough to be with a great team the past few years and to be able to take advantage of that,\u201d Truex said. \u201cThey\u2019ve given me great cars, and I feel like I\u2019ve always been good at road courses. You look back in Xfinity Series days in Mexico (where he won in his only start in 2005), and things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019ve always been strong on road courses, but now I feel like I have the team that gives me the capability of winning. So we\u2019ve been winning. I don\u2019t know how my name fits into that conversation. I guess you\u2019d have to ask other people that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Truex acknowledges that winning three straight would be an important accomplishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot to me, personally,\u201d he said. \u201cI think everyone in the garage\u2026 you want to be known in the garage as a driver that can win anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, road courses are a unique set of circumstances. I think it\u2019s an extra special feeling to be able to win at tracks that are completely different\u2014like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Erik Jones, driver of the #20 buyatoyota.com Toyota, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GoBowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 4, 2018 in Watkins Glen, New York. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

SHORT STROKES<\/b><\/p>\n

Erik Jones was fastest in Saturday\u2019s opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Watkins Glen International, pacing four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas in the top seven with a lap at 125.165 mph. JGR teammate Kyle Busch, the series leader, with second on the speed chart at 124.255 mph. Ryan Newman scraped the guard rail near the top of the esses in opening practice after posting the 13th<\/sup> fastest lap in the session. Denny Hamlin lightly brushed the Armco barrier at the bottom of the esses and lost practice time while his team made cosmetic repairs\u2026<\/p>\n

Chase Elliott jumped to the top of the speed chart with 15 minutes left in Happy Hour, running a lap at 124.520 mph in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, as final practice produced a more eclectic mix than the first session did. Hamlin was second fastest at 124.365 mph. Aric Almirola (123.979 mph) had the third quickest lap in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, with Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender William Byron fourth on the speed chart at 123.977 mph. Former Bondurant Racing School instructor Michael McDowell (123.911 mph) had the fifth best lap in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Karting has accelerated Daniel Suarez\u2019s road course learning curve WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. \u2013 Daniel Suarez is a quick study. With a racing background that includes very little road course experience, Suarez nevertheless finished third last year at Watkins Glen, his only top-five result in his rookie season in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":20938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,472],"class_list":["post-20935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-watkins-glen-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/WGI_MENCS_EJones_Practice_080418.jpg?fit=4145%2C2763&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5rF","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20935"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20943,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20935\/revisions\/20943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}