NASCAR announces major Watkins Glen change

This year, NASCAR moved Watkins Glen from August to May in what will be a one-off for the stock car series.

Watkins Glen track president Dawn Burlew announced on Friday that the event will move to September.

According to the official NASCAR website, the September date will mean Watkins Glen forms part of the first few Chase races.

Provided Shane van Gisbergen makes it into the top 16, the Trackhouse Racing driver stands to benefit from a race that’s right in his wheelhouse.

“People actually really liked that recognition for The Glen as well as all our fans that come here,” Burlew said.

“So being in [The Chase] going forward, I think they’re going to be thrilled that we’re at the first part of that and really kind of set the stage for the rest of the playoff season.

“So again, if we can be part of that and kick it off, there’s no better place than to do it at The Glen.”

Moving Watkins Glen to May raised eyebrows, especially for the colder temperatures and threat of rain.

“I think what we’ve done is our merchandise, we’ve looked at it when we saw the date, and we said, ‘OK, we need to shift our merchandise from all T-shirts and tank tops to long sleeves and things like that’,” Burlew said.

“But then again, we did some really cool stuff for Mother’s Day with our merchandise, so we just took a whole different twist to it when we started getting ready and planning for this weekend.

“We’re more celebrating just a different date, because it gave us a whole different way to plan.

“Instead of just doing traditional flowers, we did more mulch and tulips that my team planted last fall, which normally we wouldn’t do, but we said, ‘OK, that’s something different’.

“So we just embraced it that way.”

Van Gisbergen will race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Cup Series across the May 9-11 weekend at Watkins Glen.