As one of the three tracks remaining in the Cup Series regular season, Watkins Glen International has become a focal point for drivers winless this season. However, the track's history does not set up favorable outcomes for the playoff-hopeful.
According to data provided by NASCAR, only two of the last 10 races at the New York road course have featured a driver getting their first win of the season. AJ Allmendinger won his first career race in 2014, Chase Elliott won his first career race in 2018, and then Chris Buescher won his first race of the season last year.
"Watkins Glen is always special to me; it's a racetrack that we're always really fast at as well," Allmendinger said. "We have the opportunity to be in contention this weekend if we execute well. Obviously, we want a shot to win, but ultimately, we need a solid run, and this is a racetrack that we can do it at."
The first one is always special.
Care to run it back on Sunday, @AJDinger? 😉 pic.twitter.com/Py3XKkkMVG
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 7, 2025
The rest of the winners in this stretch had previously won a race in the respective seasons. This list includes William Byron (2023), Kyle Larson (2022, 2021), Elliott (2019), Martin Truex Jr. (2017), Denny Hamlin (2016), and Joey Logano (2015).
The good news for one playoff-hopeful driver, Buescher, is that he was one of the precious few to achieve this feat. This is significant considering that he currently holds the final playoff spot on points as he seeks his first win of the season. Buescher has finished top 10 in all three Gen 7 races at Watkins Glen.
"We had a really good car at Watkins Glen that took a while to get going," Buescher said about last season's race. "Our long run speed was really the perk there, and the way the race played out, our long run speed was very strong. We had some good strategies as well and with the handful of restarts we were still able to go toe for toe there.
"We've seen some separation between short and long run speed at some tracks, and The Glen was probably the largest offset last year. I don't know if that'll be the case this year, and also, we don't really want it to be that large. We need to figure out how to fire off a little bit better, and that's probably our bigger focus right now."
While Buescher can head to Watkins Glen with optimism, the other playoff-hopeful drivers do not necessarily have the same luxury. This holds especially true for Alex Bowman, one of two drivers ahead of Buescher in the playoff standings.
If Buescher repeats at Watkins Glen, Bowman will fall to the final playoff spot as the series heads to Richmond and Daytona to close out the regular season. Both tracks could feature wild card winners, as past seasons have shown with Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, and other drivers.
It's entirely possible that Bowman could go from a playoff spot to below the bubble in a matter of three weeks. He could also win at Watkins Glen and hurt the other playoff-hopeful drivers.