Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon proved to be the fastest man on track at Watkins Glen global on Friday, setting the pace with a time of 69.412s (127.067mph) on the 2.454 mile, 11-turn road course in the second of the day’s two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice sessions. Drivers with at least one win and in the top 30 in points are virtually assured of a spot in the field of 16.
Advertisement
Gordon sits 10th in points and in a comfortable position with five races to go before the Chase. “A lot different than what we have out at Sonoma, you’ve got to be really aggressive here”.
“What’ll really be interesting is to see how the drivers react to it for next year because all the information they had this year, what lines to take, that’s going to go out the window, so it’s going to be a real scramble next year here in the practice for those guys”, Kevin Twitchell said.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be the same from what happened the last two years, ” Stewart said. It’s great when you get it right and it’s easy to get it wrong.
“It’s pretty remarkable”, added NASCAR icon Richard Petty, also a six-time road course victor.
So far, Gordon has had four wins at the historic upstate New York road course – the Bud at The Glen in 1997 and 1998, the Frontier at The Glen in 1999, and the Global at The Glen race in 2001.
Although Stewart has not yet directly responded to lawsuit, he has expressed remorse for Ward losing his life in the days and weeks after the incident. Their post-race confrontation in the garage afterward remains one of the signature moments since the Cup series began racing regularly at Watkins Glen in 1986. “We can not comment on anything more due to pending litigation”. It was something that we pursued heavily.
“I did some go-kart racing too”.
And though Gordon struggled in his first road course outing in a stock vehicle, his background served him well.
In 2007, Gordon had the lead with two laps to go with Stewart pressing and spun out entering the first turn, handing Stewart an unexpected victory.
“Even if the points don’t show it right now we are a lot better of a race team than we were at this time last year”, Allmendinger said. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article. Stewart-Haas Racing, the NASCAR Dash Cup group Stewart co-owns, additionally declined to remark.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in Lewis County (N.Y.) Supreme Court, almost a year after Stewart’s race auto struck and killed the 20-year-old Ward during a NASCAR event in New York.
The Ward family hopes that the lawsuit will hold Stewart responsible for killing their son and show him there are consequences when someone recklessly takes another person’s life.
Advertisement
“Stewart could have easily acted reasonably and with prudence to avoid striking Ward, just as all other drivers had done as they passed Ward during the yellow caution flag”, the suit says.
