Watkins Glen key race toward ‘Chase’

By BILL MARX

Bubble drivers who stumble here probably won’t make it to the finale.

It’s that time of year when NASCAR nation digs into its Chase for the Sprint Cup toolbox and pulls out the words wild card.

Here’s how they are used:

Bristol is a real wild card because anything can happen at a short track.

Talladega is a real wild card because you never know who will be collected in the big one.

Martinsville is a real wild card because anything can happen at a short track. (Sound familiar?)

Don’t believe it? The upcoming trips to Bristol, Talladega and Martinsville will be the second races at each track this season. You never hear the words wild card used for the early races at those tracks.

Which brings us to Sunday’s race on the road course at Watkins Glen. Welcome to the first wild card of the almost-Chase season.

Road courses are the anomaly of the NASCAR schedule. There are two in 36 races. The first one is in June at Infineon Raceway, the 16th race of the season. If a driver stumbles, he has 10 races to recover before the Chase begins. But a bad run at Watkins Glen for whatever the reason leaves a driver four races to get back on track.

Dale Jarrett felt the sting in 2005, when 10 drivers made the Chase. He came into Watkins Glen ninth in points, finished 22nd and tumbled to 12th. He missed the Chase.

Last year the Chase field expanded to 12 drivers, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. entered Watkins Glen on the bubble in 13th, seven points behind 12th-place Kurt Busch. Earnhardt’s engine failed, and he finished 42nd, dropping to 14th, 100 points back. He missed the Chase, losing his spot to Busch, who finished 11th at Watkins Glen.

Earnhardt remained optimistic about his Chase chances despite the disastrous finish.

“It won’t be easy, but we’ve done a whole lot harder stuff than that,” he said after the race. “I think we have a couple races left, and there is no telling what is going to happen in those races.”

But the reality was 100 points was too much to overcome. Not even finishes of 12th, fifth and fifth could put him into position to make the Chase going into the final race of the regular season.

Earnhardt is taking a different approach this year by running in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race. He won at The Glen in his last Nationwide race there, in 1999.

“Running the Nationwide car is really the best way to get acclimated with the track and get back up to speed,” he said this week. “When you just run the Cup car all weekend like we do at Sonoma, you spend the first day just learning the track again — at least I do.

“I feel like sometimes that puts me a little bit behind the eight ball. So I thought when they allowed me to pick and choose a couple races in the Nationwide Series, that would be a good reason to run Watkins Glen. I would be able to go in there and get a couple hours on the racetrack before I got in my Cup car.”

The wild-card factor is enhanced this year because eight drivers are on the bubble—126 points separate Kasey Kahne in seventh from David Ragan in 14th.

Drivers have a choice: They can understand the importance of points-racing at Watkins Glen, or they can heed the advice of Jeff Burton, who crashed last year, finished 40th and then declared: “I am not going to get caught up in the points.”

Truth is, that was easy for Burton to say. He left Watkins Glen a comfortable sixth in points. For drivers on the bubble, that sentiment is not in their Chase toolbox.