Brad Keselowski will start on the pole for the Go Bowling at the Glen NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen on Sunday, the fifth of seven road-course races on the 36-race 3021 schedule. NASCAR’s formula for setting race grids without a qualifying session put all three Team Penske drivers in the top-three positions on the Watkins Glen starting grid. Joey Logano will start alongside Keselowski on the front row, with Ryan Blaney in third.
“Personally, I enjoy the road racing stuff. It’s nice that we’ve added some new racetracks and nice going back to the Glen,” Blaney said. “We haven’t been there in a year. We didn’t go there last year, so it will be nice to go back. It’s gonna be cool to go to Indy next week, especially since Mr. Penske has turned it into a road course for us, so I’m excited for that. It’s nice to have two road courses in a row right here, but I’ve enjoyed going to some new places and, then, returning to some places we’ve been before. It’s definitely challenging figuring out these new race tracks, but at the end of the day, it’s cool to bring the Cup Series or NASCAR, in general, to new places around the country and give fans that maybe have never seen a Cup race or a NASCAR race before a chance to maybe watch at their favorite race track.”
Blaney will share row two with season wins leader Kyle Larson. Kevin Harvick and points leader Denny Hamlin will line up in row three on the grid in the fifth and sixth positions.
One of Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Christopher Bell, will start seventh, sharing row four with most recent race winner Aric Almirola.
“I’m really looking forward to getting to Watkins Glen. It’s one of my most confident road courses of all the ones we go to, now,” Almirola said. “I’m looking forward to going there and being competitive with a little extra incentive coming off the win, and it’s the Go Bowling at The Glen and we’re in the Go Bowling car, so I’m even more excited to go out and give it my all.”
Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman will round out the top-10 on Sunday’s Starting grid. NASCAR’s newest road-course racing specialist Chase Elliott, seven-time road-course race winner, including the last two races at The Glen, will start just outside the top-10 in 11th.
“I really don’t feel like I do anything spectacularly special, more, or very different at those places. But, again, we’ve had a good package as a company,” Elliott said. “The #9 team now used to be the #24 team, and Jeff [Gordon] had a lot of successes on road courses. Alan [Gustafson, crew chief] has a great understanding and a little history of road racing, too, prior to NASCAR. So I feel like we’ve focused on things that matter and we’ve developed a good package. But, as I always say, things are evolving and changing as time goes, and we’ve got to continue to push and be better, too. We know our competition is, and we’ll give it our best shot and see where we stack up this weekend, just like always.”
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