I feel bad for kimi dude… wrong place wrong time there, but he showed a great amount of speed. I’d love to see him in that car next year at some point!

Easily a 95% on my groove gauge.. The Glen is the best road course on the schedule.

Todd really impressed me with his run today. For someone as rushed as him it's incredible how well he's done. A shame he had that part failure. Dude really went from like 20th to 5th in 5 laps and even led some laps before the part failure. He legitimately could have won today.

It broke my heart to see Kimi Räikkönen wreck I really hope he can come back at the Charlotte Roval

I loved watching AJ and Kyle racing at the end two days in a row! AJ is scary good on road courses. He took the second place like a champ!

Strong run today by Michael McDowell.

I like Chase’s response better, he did not take the bait and took the high road knowing it was a move he would maybe pull on somebody.

"The only mistake he made was trusting his team mate" Yikes.

I sense a new Gordon/Johnson rivalry growing within HMS.

Glad trackhouse made Kimi competitive and not a ride around. Almost wish a true road course like this is the playoff road course instead of Roval. Great race.

Kimi was doing so good,hopefully he tries to take another stab at it

Kimi looked like you had a lot of fun. He definitely talked more this weekend than I've ever heard him ever

I'm with Larson...Elliott knew the risks and decided to pinch Larson down more than he needed to each restart. And yet no one is talking about how tight Chase ran Kyle into the corner those last restarts. CE can't get upset when KL decided to take back his lane. Seriously look at all the other restarts of the other drivers and how much room they gave the inside cars and then and only then look at how much room Chase gave Kyle on those last few restarts... He left zero room... it's not an uncommon tactic to use on people on the inside of a turn. Just because a driver doesn't make contact with someone doesn't mean you aren't racing dirty.

That moment you know Loris Hezemans got more TV time and attention then *Denny Hamlin* and *Aric Almirola*

If you don’t go for it as a driver there with 6 to go, you rly aren’t wanting it bad enough. Nascars viewership issues are exactly the problem people have with Larson making contact with another cAr. He didn’t wreck him, he rubbed him and barely used him up. No cut tires that’s why we wanted the new car right? And forget their teammates, I don’t want to go spend $1500 for a weekend of racing to have it end with 2 “corporate teammates “ blocking for each other and or no pushing one another like would see At your local race track. You Eric always speak of the broadcast issues Nascar has, and your right correct. But your missing it here as well with the corporate control some of these bigger teams try to have over one another by having their drivers do the unthinkable and not run their teammate like they would any other driver out their! Let the best man win, not the most popular 🏁😉 and than you may have an actual sport where over time people will pay and pay to watch the best talent around compete against each other.

I am glad Larson and Elliott raced. Was Larson supposed to let Elliott win because had the better car? Or Elliott supposed to let Larson win because Elliott has more wins this season? I'm a Hendrick fan and even I don't want teams manipulating it like that. Just have them race.

Looked like hard racing going for the win to me...

Huge Chase Elliott fan here. There was nothing wrong with Larson’s move. He sent it in there and made it work. That’s racing.

when youre talking the final laps, you do try harder, go deeper in the braking zone...and sometimes, with colder tires, you lock up a wheel. that is what happened. After the race, Larson's car was clean ...I saw no tire marks or evidence he actually contacted the 9. Did he run him wide, yes...but that is also a consequence of an early apex. So, I feel bad that Chase lost his chance to win, but if you watched his car at the top of the esses after getting pushed wide, he got loose and that allowed 22 to pass the 9. That was most likely cold tires, or tires with buildup on them. It was good hard racing...what we have wanted to see at the end of races, and no team orders.

Joey Hand was amazing today. Imagine him in a half-competitive car.

I agree with you about earlier starts. However, the rain today was not “pop-up” showers. It was because of a weather system moving through

Must we really push a narrative like this? It's racing guys they've done this for 50+ years and whenever someone taps someone slightly it's the end of the world. We need to grow up and just go out there and race jeez

One of the most entertaining races of the season for me. Stage 1 was great with teams choosing to put on slicks and when cars came out of the pits with other cars carrying momentum. Entertaining.

Love your videos! I only found your channel this summer, and your post race analysis and mid week news updates are already up there with Jayski for where I go for my NASCAR updates!

It’s just hard racing, that’s what chase Elliot fans said after Atlanta anyways 🤷🏻‍♂️

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why anyone would think this was a "dirty" move or a "cheap shot." He drove the car in there hard to try to take the lead. Literally ANYONE in the field would have done the exact same thing knowing they probably couldn't keep pace with Elliott. Also knowing Elliott has 4 or 5 wins so far and already locked up the regular season championship.. Those Playoff points are crucial and Larson knew that. Switch the roles and Elliott does the same exact thing. Anyone thinking that he or anyone else wouldn't is delusional. It's like these guys need to be perfect for the fans in order for them to appreciate hard racing.

The lightening rules were established in 2012 because during Pocono race there were strikes with no rain and a fan was struck in the stands and was killed

Can't see how people can complain about Auto Club when Chase pulled the same move at Atlanta to keep the win over Corey. This is what NASCAR wanted. The drivers are doing what the system encourages them to do.

Also this means Kurt Busch is locked in since there can only be one new winner. Hope he comes back at Darlington

Chase winning early is like old school championship winning after 33 or 34 races congrats chase

I guess Kyle was supposed to pull over and let chase win!

Gotta give a shout out to FRM both those cars showed up today and impressed Also extremely impressed with everyone at lap 1. I was expecting wipe out galore

You're acting like Larson wrecked Elliott. After seeing the replay, Larson clearly locked his brakes up and lost control of his own car, sending him into Elliott. You're making it way more "controversial" than it should be.

Larson wasnt even with Chase going into turn 1... he was clearly a nose ahead. So, he was ahead and in the preferred groove, and the track is paved wide. He rubbed him door to door and son... rubbin is racing. Did anyone care when Larson was moved in the last restart at Michigan. The 22 and 23 were battling and the 23 hit the 5 and caused Larson to lose 6 spots and never had a chance. Yet no one cared.

If Larson had not driven it in, Dinger and *ick head Lagano would have been more than happy to drill him in the rear end... ouch... I say no foul, and they both handled the post race commentary very well. Chase kind of seemed like he felt he screwed himself. All good.

_Go Bowling at The Glen?_ *Kyle Larson certainly did on Chase Elliott…* 💀

It was super fair. He did exactly what he should've done!! At that point of the race he is not ur teammate, he's ur competition 🤷‍♂️

When you have great cars under one umbrella/ team- this is going to happen.

Your summary of the Elliot-Larson dust up was the best I've heard. Great summary and explanation.

Today’s race was awesome. Pure awesomeness

If Larson doesnt make that move he doesnt just lose the race. He loses fans. He loses his teams trust. Self respect. And people like Eric start talking about how he s not what he was a year ago. Not just a good move. A fair move. At this point its a necessary move.

There are already several F1 and Indy car drivers that want to drive the Project 91 car after they saw Kimi race today. Like Marcus Ericsson, Jenson Button, and others. Its gonna be fun to see even more F1 and Indy drivers racing with the nascar veterans

First time at Watkinsglen for me and I’ll be going back next year. It was a good race live. Was my 6yr old daughters first race and she’s hooked. Love your break downs. Keep up the solid work.

As William Munny said to Little Bill “We all get what we deserve.” Hendrick has always been a no-team-orders operation. That didn’t even fly when Gordon owned part of the 48, Johnson may have just been a little smoother. They do tend to protect each other from other teams.

Love the road course action as always! Feel bad for Kimi when he crashed during this race. Lots of great runs I've seen from various drivers too!

You may not be proud of it, Kyle, but I am. Shout out to the #16 for the push !

Another GREAT race at the Glen... there's a reason it's one of my favorite tracks and easily the best Road Course on the schedule

This season has been such a great one because drivers are doing "what they have to do" as they should. The fact people are complaining about drivers racing to hard is everything thats wrong with Nascar

He didn't rough up his teammate.

Fair move by Larson if you can’t race your teammate hard for the win then that’s a sad day for the sport. Team orders are the worst part of Formula 1 we don’t need that here as well.

Marcus Ericcson and Jenson Button have both already shown interest in driving for Project 91, so that's already an amazing start and I'm so excited to see that car next year

Eric, thanks for your attention to this sport and your professionalism. It is nice to listen to someone who is so educated in the sport and sticks to the topic of the sport. Not venturing off into politics or other unrelated things.

When I first saw the final restart it looked like Kyle Larson accidentally locked it up. I still think it kinda happened that way.

Theres nothing wrong with what happen. Its racing, you are suppose to do whatever you can to get the best finish you can. Who cares how the driver wins a race.

Appreciate the time spent about Raikkonen. Not even an F1 fan but after watching some highlights am definitely a Kimi fan now.

I have noticed this happen a number of times this year, and it came up again today: on the left hand side of the TV screen where the drivers are shown 1 through 40, they stop at 20 and do not show any other drivers but the top twenty. I wonder what the issue is? Anyway, keep up the great work, Eric.

I’m not even that mad about the Larson move considering there is a bigger picture and that’s potentially winning another title and won the regular season championship too

Go Larson it was the right move

wasnt it raining just as bad or worse earlier in the day at watkins glen? moving the start time would've just extended the delay for however much earlier they were scheduled to start

New subscriber here I love your take on this race!! I love Nascar and always loved Watkins Glen. Great track

Was Wallace even in this race, I don’t remember even seeing his name on the running order, I honestly don’t know if they even said his name all day

It was hard racing, and chase is a fool if he doesn’t think he wouldn’t do the same .

Hey Eric, I believe the lightning rule was put in place by NASCAR following the death of a fan in 2012 at Pocono. When lightning strikes within 8-10miles from the track, the race is immediately red flagged for 30 minutes to allow fans to leave the metal grandstands and seek shelter. This clock resets if another strike occurs. It’s sucks that we have to wait, but I applaud NASCAR for putting fan safety first!

Big fan of Eric ! One of my all-timep favorite tracks comes next week ! Can't wait to see ! Hope there's a surprise winner !🏆

JOEY HAND?!?!?!

While the “drama” of the win and you’re in format is good, having drivers in the top 10 in points missing a championship opportunity stinks. I like the idea of going back to a regular points gathering 26 race schedule in which the top 10 in points are locked into the “playoffs.” Race winners outside the top 10 can fill out the final 6 slots or fill out the rest of the grid based on points. Then for the final 10 elimination races, a win will advance you to the next round. Still not a fan of the one race winner take all though. *sigh* maybe the old Winston Cup points system is still the best. I remember in 1992……

Saw Marcus Ericcson and Jenson Button throw their names in the hat for that 91 car. Seems like a huge success for nascar as a whole and for the project 91 program

Just hard racing. Congratulations to the 5 team.

Larson has been moved out of the way a lot this year, so I was happy to see him make an aggressive move of his own.

Can we talk about how during the race the broadcast basically confirmed Kyle Bush isn’t going back to the 18 car

Big congrats to Chase clinching the regular season title! I don't know why this seems new to everyone, but both Larson and Elliot has always raced each other hard, even last year. Texas All Star Race 2021 , and if my memory serves me right, Coke 600 2021 are some of the more notable races. If places were swapped, Elliot would've done the same thing, because Larson wouldn't expect anything less. Not to mention, if it wasn't Elliot and Larson up front, and instead it was Suarez and Cindric, I guarantee you, this would've been seen as just "another racing deal" to everyone, and this was a racing deal. Chase chose the outside and Larson had the bottom and was easily even with Elliot going into the turn, and there's two more even more aggressive drivers behind them, Aj and Logano who'd love to be in Larson's position.

Totally agree with the earlier start times Eric! My wife and I went to Dover Delaware and that race started late as hell. And I say make it that noon start time! If California and the west coast can't rub the sleep out of their eyes then don't watch! Great video 🙂

feel so bad for Todd Gilliand, I’d love to see him in a better car in the near future

This was a great race! I look foward to this race every year and again it did not disappoint! I give it a 92% and what Larson did was fair. He didn’t wreck chase just got him Out of the Groove!

it was crazy watching the cars at the beginning of the race in the final turn and trying to keep their cars under control. not bad for my first Watkins Glen race in person.

I totally agree and they learn how the weather works where every they go

The Xfinity race was amazing besides all of the single car cautions especially Willy B and Ty Gibbs battling the whole race

The final restart was just road racing. Any other form of motorsport that runs on road courses will have passes for the lead that look very similar to that. Great race!

there is so much talent at hendrick & the amount of time they spend torwards the front they are gonna have some times when they butt heads with each other especially two recent champions with very similar cars & capabilities 👍🏻

I always hate on road courses, but I have to say, I loved this race abs found a spot in my heart for road courses. I think Watkins Glenn is cool because of the speed they can race at and not those come almost to a stop tight turns like Sonoma.

Chase is gonna lose his mind. Kyle had to be aggressive on the restart.

If the #1 had done that, everyone would have been screaming how dirty that was. That is either a di%@ move, or it's ok. Can't have it both ways. I say that when the win is on the line, there are no team-mates.

Well, all restarts was crazy!! Turn 1 was crazy all weekend!

Let's give some props to Joey Hand. Aside from that spin passing Truex, Hand proved that he can hold his own and race head to head in a cup car.

He just locked up the front right and pushed up!! Kimi drove great just got caught up in other drivers crap! And i have seen Chase do the samething!! Plus i really could careless about Chase!! Love the Ice man!! Watkins aglenn is one of the best races!! Been watching this race since the early 80s!

Nobody ever won a championship because they deserved it more. They earn it!

As far as the caution with the Hand crash. I’ve been to dozens of races at WGI including Nascar, Indy, imsa. The tire barrier is actually placed about 20 feet from the actual fence, creating even more “give” when a car hits it. Any time that barrier is moved it needs to be moved back to be effective. When Kyle Busch spun he hit the regular fence and was able to continue, thus no need for the causation. And for the rain, here in upstate Ny in August it rains virtually every day in the afternoon and it’s something we deal with every year and the start time needs to be adjusted.

Can we talk about the fact that when the 18 spun and hit the wall there was no caution but when the 15 backed it in the wall Nascar was quick to throw the caution???

Toxic Elliott fans need to calm down and stop hating on his teammate Larson. Larson didn't do anything wrong or make any dirty move. Perhaps you can blame Elliott for not taking the inside line or blame Logano for giving Elliott no push on the restart but Larson didn't cost Elliott a win. From what I saw on the replay, Dinger gave a big push to Larson and Logano being Logano gave no push to Elliott thinking he could win by not pushing the outside lane. Then Larson went too hard on the curbs and slid up into Elliott in turn 1 before the esses. I really wanted my 2 favorite drivers to finish 1-2 though.

The 2 races were almost identical with 6 laps left. And if This whole thing was not with two teammates nobody would care

The #9 was very cordial and polite giving his team mate the inside line , maybe Chase is just bi-polar?

I’d be happy with two Watkins Glen races in a season because it consistently puts on great, door banging, temper flaring, rubbin’s racin type of racing that made me a NASCAR fan.

As a Western fan I don't want any earlier starts. I'm not even in Pacific time but it feels early

Kimi “Iceman” Raikonnen was known as Iceman because he didn’t really talk in F1. Mostly due to not willing to be involved in the politics and shadiness of F1. I think he was more open with Media because he was the focus, and he had no reason to be involved in Politics. His race was about him and that’s it.

For half the vid I kept saying "Damn I like that shirt" lol

I learned something new from Kimi the Iceman - stoicism!

Late in the race, especially a restart?THERE ARE NO TEAMMATES!!!Larson did nothing to apologize for.Had Elliott won the same way, Elliott did no wrong either.Larson didn't wreck Elliott.Larson wanted that damn trophy,and no one on the planet was going to take it from him.Team buddy or not,Larson simply outsmarted all others.

I was at the race today. First time at Watkins Glen, was an amazing track,, I'm just think road courses are better watched on tv. You get to see all of the race instead of just a few turns.. Chase was dominate all day. In my eyes "rubbin is racin". So I think it was fair. Driver were running wide in that spot all day. As for the weather, Nascar either should have moved the race up to get ahead of the storm or moved it back. On the rader you could clearly see when the rain was going to start and about how long it would last. Nascar needs to get better at adjusting the schedule if there is a possibility of inclimate weather.

Time to revisit those HMS internal sportsmanship conversations. Bowmans winning comments at Vegas just a week after Larson’s auto club conflicts. I remember him saying “at HMS we race each other cleanly and respectfully”. Guess enough time has passed for Larson to forget about that.

The lightning delay was introduced after someone was struck and killed at Pocono I believe. Frustrating, but certainly a nesseccary precaution