Watkins Glen Go Bowling At The Glen Fantasy NASCAR Top Tier Elite Picks

Shane van Gisbergen
Watkins Glen Fantasy Outlook – At Watkins Glen, the road to victory lane likely goes thru Shane van Gisbergen. SVG nearly won this race last year (2nd) and after three straight dominant road course wins in 2025, he’ll likely take the competition to the woodshed. This year at road courses, SVG has been smoking the field and in addition to winning the last three races, SVG has the best Total Speed Ranking (1.25) the best average finish (2.3), the best average running position (2.8) and his Driver Rating is the best by a wide margin.
Watkins Glen Track History – Last summer at Watkins Glen, Shane van Gisbergen was impressive and nearly raced his way to victory lane. In the race, SVG finished 2nd, had the 2nd best average running position (5.6) and earned the 2nd best Driver Rating. During an overtime restart, SVG shot to the lead (only led 1 lap) but then on the final lap, he slightly messed up in a turn and then Chris Buescher got around him for the win. In terms of speed analytics, SVG ranked #1 for Total Speed Rankings and Speed Late In A Run.

Christopher Bell
Watkins Glen Fantasy Outlook – At Watkins Glen, look for Christopher Bell to be a top five contender who’ll be a factor to win. Bell’s one of the premiere road course racers in NASCAR and he’s also been elite at Watkins Glen. This year at road courses, Bell’s the only driver not named SVG to have won (COTA) and for the season minus Chicago his average finish is 2.7 and his average Speed Ranking is 4.3. Going back to 2024 on this track type, Bell has the 2nd best Track Type Total Speed Ranking, so you can be confident this 3-time road course winner will be fast. At Watkins Glen, Bell’s 3 for 4 at finishing in the top ten and minus last year which wasn’t incident free his average finish is 6th.
Watkins Glen Track History – Christopher Bell has been elite at Watkins Glen and in the Next Gen among drivers who competed in every race, Bell has the 2nd best average finish (8.3) and the 4th best Next Gen Speed Ranking. Last year, Bell’s race was far from incident free and it’s actually a little surprising he finished 14th. In the race, Bell was involved in a lap #1 accident, had driven up to 13th on lap 58 but then just after that on lap 62, Austin Dillon spun him out while he was coming to pit road which dropped him back to the high 20’s in the running order. With his multiple problems, don’t get carried away with takeaways for his afternoon. In addition to finishing 14th, Bell had the 19th best Driver Rating and the 20th best Total Speed Ranking. In 2023, Bell had his best Watkins Glen performance. In the race, Bell started 7th, finished 7th in Stage #1, finished 6th in Stage #2, had a 5.4 average running position and then finished 4th overall. In terms of speed stats, Bell ranked as the fastest driver late in a run and had the 4th best Total Speed Ranking. In 2022, Bell started in the back due to an engine change, but that wasn’t a problem, and he raced his way up to an 8th place finish. In terms of Total Speed Rankings, Bell ranked 8th. In 2021, Bell finished 7th but that’s an asterisk mark result. In the race, Bell started in the rear of the field, finished 2nd in Stage #2 and then in the final Stage while running in 2nd on lap 55 (90 lap race), Bell was spun which dropped him back to 10th. In the race, Bell had the 6th best Total Speed Ranking.

Chase Elliott
Watkins Glen Fantasy Outlook – 7-time road course winner, Chase Elliott is the premier performer at Watkins Glen and on Sunday, look for him to be a top five contender who’ll be a factor to win. Elliott hasn’t forgotten how to win at road courses, and he likely would’ve won another here in 2022 if there wasn’t a late caution while leading which led to Kyle Larson body slamming him on a restart. This year at road courses, Elliott has been elite and over the combined races, Elliott has the 2nd best average finish (6.5) and ranks 7th in terms of Track Type Total Speed Rankings.
Watkins Glen Track History – Chase Elliott is a super-elite performer at Watkins Glen who’s always tough to beat. Elliott’s a two-time winner and since 2018 minus the last two races, Elliott has a 2.0 average finish. Last year like nearly all the Playoff field, Elliott just didn’t have a good afternoon. In the race, Elliott started 14th, had a 14.9 average running position, earned the 14th best Driver Rating and then finished 19th. In terms of speed stats, Elliott had the 11th best Total Speed Ranking and then ranked 15th for Speed Late In A Run. In 2023, Elliott was under a ton of pressure with his Playoff hopes on the line and he finished an asterisk mark 32nd. In the race, Elliott started 15th, finished 7th in Stage #2 but then on lap 55 while running in 7th, Elliott ran out of gas which ended up being the only caution of the race. If Elliott’s race would’ve been incident free, I think he may have very well been a top five contender. In 2022, Elliott had the race all but won until a late caution came out while leading which led to him getting body slammed on the restart from Larson which led to his 4th. In the race, Elliott had a 4.4 average running position, led 29 laps and earned the best driver rating. In 2021, Elliott had a great car and finished runner-up, despite starting in the rear of the field and making an unexpected pit stop for flat spotting his tires on lap 31. In the two races prior to that, Elliott had back-to-back wins.

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