Earlier this year, we examined the top-5 wildest finishes in NASCAR races at The Glen. This month, we'll take a look at the top-5 most significant Sprint Cup Series moments to gear up for the Cheez-ItTM 355 at The Glen.
These are the events that people still talk about years later, and those which become not just important in the history of Watkins Glen International, but powerful statements in the sport.
So looking back on the last 30 running of NASCAR's premier series at The Glen, and in no particular order, let's start with ...
An international affair
There was a Colombian champion of open-wheel racing, an Australian road racer and a Las Vegas native and former series champ all dueling in the late stages of the 2010 Sprint Cup Series race at The Glen. Elsewhere in the field were two Canadian aces - one from neighboring Ontario, the other from Quebec - and a popular Italian racer who already dazzled Glen fans early in his career.
Juan Pablo Montoya's victory at The Glen was more than just a NASCAR race, but an example of what the series had become - and could be.
Foreign-born drivers enjoying success in the heavy stock cars had been rare until the arrival of racers like Montoya and Marcos Ambrose, who went on to win two Cup races and three Nationwide Series events at The Glen. But the race in 2010 marked a new kind of shift in the series, and especially on road courses.
Ron Fellows had won five races in three series at The Glen, Max Papis won the six-hour race twice - including the 1996 jaw dropper - and Patrick Carpentier was driving in his third different series at The Glen.
The Cheez-It 355TM at The Glen has been won by foreign-born drivers the previous three years, with Montoya on pole position for last year's 90-lapper.
Steve Park's first win
In 1996, Park was a young modified racer from Long Island who was attracting the attention of Winston Cup car owners. He was asked to qualify Joe Nemechek's Craftsman Truck at The Glen - just to get his No. 87 Chevy in field, nothing fancy. Park put it on pole position. Months later, he was hired by Dale Earnhardt to drive for the Intimidator's Busch Grand National team and eventually was the centerpiece of the legend's start-up Winston Cup operation.
Park was sidelined for half the 1998 season with injuries suffered in a practice crash at Atlanta. People wondered if he would ever be the same again.
He was better than before, holding off none other than Mark Martin to win the 2000 Global Crossing @ The Glen for his first-career victory. Park stopped his car on the front straightaway, climbed on top of his No. 1 Pennzoil Monte Carlo and celebrated as the "hometown" fans cheered louder than a crowd ever had before at The Glen.
Geoff Bodine's comeback
In 1996, things weren't going well for Bodine, who two years earlier purchased Alan Kulwicki's Winston Cup team and appeared poised to become a championship contender. However, Hoosier Tires had left NASCAR in 1995, leaving Bodine's bunch out in the cold. Meanwhile, Bodine was going through a public divorce that left him emotionally fragile.
Coming back to his home track at The Glen, Bodine was 20th in the driver standings with one top-5 finish - two years removed from winning three races on the Hoosiers. Bodine was in a position to gamble. He and crew chief Paul Andrews borrowed a sports car racing pit strategy that allowed his No. 7 Exide Ford crew to make one fewer stop than the rest of the field, and put the black Thunderbird up front in the final stage of the race. Bodine passed Ken Schrader with eight laps to go and held off Terry Labonte, who had fresher Goodyear tires, by just .44 seconds.
It was Bodine's final Cup victory, and arguably his most memorable."Hurts so good"So as you're learning, or remembering, 1996 was kind of a big year at The Glen.
At Talladega two weeks earlier, Earnhardt - the most durable racer of his era - suffered the worst injuries of his career to that point in a crash which broke his collarbone and sternum. The Intimidator was relieved by Mike Skinner in the Brickyard 400 and entering the Bud at The Glen, David Green was on standby.
Earnhardt didn't need him.
The seven-time champion stunned everyone by taking pole position on the 2.45-mile, undulating road course - feeling the sting of broken bones in his torso every time he shifted or slung the familiar No. 3 Goodwrench Chevy into the high-speed corners. Within a day, memorabilia was for sale around the track to highlight the gritty achievement, reading "Hurts so good."
In the race, Green waited patiently to substitute for the injured icon, but never got in the car. Earnhardt completed every lap of the race, finishing sixth after leading more than half the race.
The performance didn't just build on his reputation as the roughest, toughest driver in America, many believe it defined it.Welcome back!In 1984, the race track at Watkins Glen reopened following bankruptcy - thanks to a partnership between Corning Enterprises and International Speedway Corp. Two years later, NASCAR returned to Schuyler County for the first time since 1965.
The first Budweiser at The Glen set the tone for an event that would become a staple on the Sprint Cup Series schedule for decades. Since an estimated 86,000 fans watched the late Tim Richmond draw away from established stock car hero Darrell Waltrip, the annual August weekend is the largest sporting event in the Empire State.
NASCAR has come to define The Glen in the post-bankruptcy era, and is the longest-running event in the history of auto racing in and around Watkins Glen. Had the first Bud at The Glen failed to impress, it's difficult to imagine what may have happened to the beloved track.
These days, fans and drivers have made stock cars on the short course among the most anticipated events of the season, with a break in the oval track monotony and some wild finishes of late.
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