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Overhead view of Watkins Glen International (Photo from NASCAR Media)
The Nationwide Series will run its first road course race of the season Saturday afternoon with a stop at Watkins Glen International for the Zippo 200 at the Glen.
As usual, road course ringers will pepper the field on Saturday. Among those, of course will be Ron Fellows. He’ll be driving the No. 5 entry for JR Motorsports, serving as a teammate for Nationwide Series regular Brad Keselowski. Fellows leads road course ringers with three Nationwide Series wins at the Glen.
Aside from Fellows and fellow road course ace Boris Said, many of the other road course ringers expected to run on Saturday are drivers who appear regularly, if not on a full-time basis, in some other NASCAR division -- Sprint Cup regulars Robby Gordon and Scott Speed and J.R. Fitzpatrick, who races for Kevin Harvick Inc. part-time in the Camping World Truck Series, just to name a few.
While there’ll be more than a few road course aces hoping to spoil the day for the Nationwide Series regulars, several of the series’ regulars are looking forward to the opportunity to turn both left and right in a racecar.
“I’m really looking forward to getting my first Nationwide road-course start,” Nationwide Series rookie Justin Allgaier said. “Unfortunately my background doesn’t involve much turning right, unless it’s to counter-steer on dirt, so hopefully I can rely on the team to help me with my shortcomings.”
Nationwide regulars will not only have road course specialists to deal with. They’ll also have to race a fair share of other Sprint Cup drivers, including Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman who will be piloting entries normally driven by Nationwide Series regulars.
Hamlin, who won a Nationwide Series road course race in Mexico in 2006, will replace Scott Lagasse Jr. in the No. 11 for the next two races. Meanwhile, Newman will replace Mike Bliss behind the wheel of the No. 1 car on Saturday. Drivers for these two teams for the remainder of the season have yet to be announced.
Also, Joey Logano will be back behind the wheel of the No. 20.
Marcos Ambrose, who has since moved on to the Sprint Cup Series, since winning the Nationwide race at Watkins Glen a year ago will be back in a Nationwide car this weekend to defend his win.
Television coverage for Saturday’s Zippos coverage is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2
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