NASCAR Cup Series

If we determine who is an actual contender, versus being just a pretender race in and race out, based on an average 20th place result, our field would be reduced to 22. Add William Byron and Jamie McMurray to the bottom of our list, and that is all you need to be concerned about.

Roush Fenway Racing heads north to the Empire State and the concrete jungle where dreams are made of as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) get set to tackle the 2.45-mile road course at Watkins Glen International. Jack Roush has six wins all-time at WGI, including three in the Cup series, two in trucks and one in Xfinity action.

Watkins Glen Preview: The Series heads to Watkins Glen International for the second and final road course race of the 2018 season. Hamlin captured his first win at “The Glen” in 2016, making his pass for the lead with only 10 laps left in the 90-lap race. In 12 starts at “The Glen,” Hamlin has secured three top-five finishes, including last year’s fourth-place result.

Truex the Road Course Ace… 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) champion Martin Truex Jr. has become quite the road course ace over the last two seasons. Truex captured his first win at Watkins Glen International in 2017 and followed it with another victory at Sonoma Raceway earlier this year after also winning in a Toyota at the track in 2013. Now two for two on road courses in one year’s time, the defending Cup Series champion returns to Watkins Glen where it all started. In 12 career-series starts at The Glen, Truex has one win and four top-five finishes, finishing outside the top-25 only twice. With a win this weekend, Truex would be the first driver since Toyota teammate Kyle Busch (2008) to claim victory at both Sonoma and Watkins Glen in the same season.

This weekend, Paul Menard and the No. 21 Menards/Sylvania team return to Watkins Glen International, where in 2003 Menard made his debut in the series now known as Monster Energy Cup.

There are three good reasons why Martin Truex Jr. is considered one of the strong favorites to win Sunday’s road race at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.

1. Kyle Busch: Busch pulled away on a restart with three laps to go and cruised to the win in the Gander Outdoors 400. "I tied Tony Stewart with my 49th Cup win," Busch said. "One more win and I can finally say, 'Well, passing him in the buffet line is out of the question, but at least I passed Tony in the standings." Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

Chevrolet has more wins at Watkins Glen than any other manufacturer. The Bowtie Brigade has been to Victory Lane at Watkins Glen 17 times in the 35 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series events held at the 2.45-mile road course.

Chase Elliott on racing at Watkins Glen: “In the last couple of years, I feel like we’ve run better at Watkins Glen. We had a good run at Sonoma earlier this season, so hopefully we learned some things that we can do this weekend. I’ve never really had the results to show (at Watkins Glen), but we usually always have had some speed and pace.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1 - RACING AT WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL: "Watkins Glen International is always going to be a special place for me," Allmendinger said. "It's the site of my first win in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, and it's just an awesome place to have a race in the Finger Lakes of New York. Watkins Glen is like the superspeedway of road courses. There are such long straightaways that you're able to pick up some speed on, and then you really have to make sure you get into the corners right to be able to keep that speed and momentum up."