NASCAR insiders discuss the "helpless feeling" of racing at Watkins Glen amid chaotic playoff battle

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs visited Watkins Glen International for the second playoff race of the Round of 16. The Go Bowling at the Glen Road Course race delivered on its drama and chaos with several cautions and multi-car wrecks.

Watkins Glen has hosted the NASCAR Cup Series annually since 1986, except in 2020 when the race was moved to Daytona due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year's Go Bowling at the Glen proved challenging for most playoff drivers. Reigning champion Ryan Blaney finished last after a first-lap incident, while only Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric managed top-ten finishes among playoff contenders.

In a recent episode of Dirty Mo Media's Door Bumper Clear podcast, NASCAR spotters TJ Majors, Freddie Kraft, and Brett Griffin reflected on the playoff race at Watkins Glen. They highlighted the difficulty of managing visibility and communication during the chaotic race.

"There's no more helpless feeling than when your car is on the other side of the race track and you hear your other spotter or go [indistinct sounds]," Freddie Kraft said.

"We can see the bus stop just like you can see a car like shoot through there. And when you see dust and stuff over there, like, 'oh god', like you see the dust cloud and it's not good," TJ Majors said. "Oh, when we switch, we switch directions and mid-sentence. It's like, 'oh god oh, we're going to hit. Hold the break. You okay?'" he added.

RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher drove down victory lane in the Go Bowling at the Glen playoff race, marking his first victory this season. Meanwhile, the playoff standings experienced a reshuffle. As NASCAR heads towards the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway, playoff drivers Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., and Harrison Burton are below the Round of 12 cut-off line.

JGR driver Ty Gibbs and Stewart Haas' Chase Briscoe are also among the drivers battling to advance to the next round.

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NASCAR insiders in disbelief over playoff drivers' poor performance at Watkins Glen

The 2024 playoffs have not been kind to the playoff contenders thus far. The Athletic's Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck recently shed light on the performance of playoff drivers at Watkins Glen International.

In a recent episode of The Teardown, Gluck and Bianchi talk about the history of the NASCAR playoffs where they discussed that the worst position of the top finishing playoff driver has been P2 since the elimination rounds were introduced.

"So 2014 to now, the worst a playoff driver has finished in a playoff race was second […] I mean, sorry, the worst the best playoff driver," Jeff Gluck said. “So obviously, you’ve had not playoff drivers don’t win every race in the playoffs. But you’ve never had the best finishing playoff driver lower than second. Am I making sense?"

"You are," Jordan Bianchi replied. “I’m just I’m perplexed by that. I thought for sure there had been a race or somewhere along the way where, you know, the top two guys in the race were non-playoff…"

After the race at Watkins Glen, a surprising eight of the sixteen playoff drivers finished outside the top 20. Meanwhile, six others managed to place between P10 and P20, reflecting a challenging day for many of the top contenders.