2007 Centurion Boats at The Glen - Watkins Glen International

Watkins Glen International is a beautiful winding road course in upstate New York. Once each year the NEXTEL Cup series stars invade for their second and final road course race of the season. This Sunday is the 2007 Centurion Boats at The Glen.

The road course ringers will be out in force this weekend. Guys with full-time road racing rides like P.J. Jones, Patrick Carpentier, Ron Fellows, Boris Said and Klaus Graf will all try to qualify for the race. Could this be the year that one of them steals the win away from the regulars?

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Watkins Glen is a 2.45 mile 11 turn road course. This picturesque race track features some dramatic elevation changes and the dreaded "Inner Loop" which is a chicane at the end of the backstretch which never fails to confound a few drivers every year.

90 laps = 220.5 miles

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second in Pocono last week but still lost the twelfth and final Chase qualifying spot to race winner Kurt Busch.

There are just five races remaining until the cutoff and Kurt Busch is only seven points ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the twelfth position. Martin Truex Jr. in eleventh is 35 points ahead of Busch.

The top twelve are now:

1. Jeff Gordon -0
2. Denny Hamlin -366
3. Matt Kenseth -411
4. Jeff Burton -473
5. Tony Stewart -487
6. Carl Edwards -554
7. Jimmie Johnson -612
8. Kyle Busch -625
9. Kevin Harvick -636
10. Clint Bowyer -684
11. Martin Truex Jr. -802
12. Kurt Busch -837

The road racing ringers will be out in force this weekend. Whenever the NEXTEL Cup series stars visit a road course a number of road course specialists get one-off rides to try to outshine the NEXTEL Cup regulars.

Drivers like Boris Said, Ron Fellows, P.J. Jones, Patrick Carpentier, Klaus Graf and others will attempt to qualify for Sunday's race. Interestingly no road course ringer has ever won a NEXTEL Cup series event at Watkins Glen. Could this be the year?

TV: ESPN Sunday, August 12th, 1:00PM Eastern.

Radio: MRN and SIRIUS Satellite

Actual Race: 2:05PM Eastern

$4,800,931

In 2006 Tony Stewart had the lead with just five laps to go and looked like he would win his third Watkins Glen race in a row. However Kevin Harvick had other plans. Harvick got a great run under Stewart with just three laps to go. Kevin Harvick took the lead and drove the wheels off it to hang on for the win.

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup road races usually lead me to pick drivers like Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon. Both of those drivers make great picks this week but I am looking for two drivers that are a little less obvious.

When you think of great NEXTEL Cup road racers Kevin Harvick's name rarely comes to mind. However Kevin Harvick won this race last year and finished a strong second to Juan Pablo Montoya at Infineon Raceway earlier this season. Kevin Harvick has very quietly become a force in NEXTEL Cup road racing and makes a great pick to defend his Watkins Glen title this weekend.

For my backup this week I'm going with a driver that is almost a ringer. NEXTEL Cup rookie Juan Pablo Montoya has won races in Formula One. Clearly he knows how to turn right and he proved it earlier this season with a win at Infineon Raceway. Montoya will be a favorite at NASCAR's road courses every time he is in the race.