No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota crew chief Brian Pattie circles Watkins Glen on his Sprint Cup Series schedule each year – and with good reason. Pattie has won in all three of NASCAR’s top touring series at the upstate New York road course.
Pattie’s first win at Watkins Glen came in 1999 with Ron Fellows in the No. 87 Bully Hill Vineyards truck in the Camping World Truck Series. He followed that up with back-to-back Nationwide Series wins with Fellows in the No. 87 Bully Hill car in 2000 and 2001. Pattie won in the Sprint Cup Series in 2010 with Juan Pablo Montoya.
Pattie has good reason to look forward to his first visit to the 2.45-mile road course this weekend with Michael Waltrip Racing and driver Clint Bowyer. Bowyer recorded his only win of the season at Sonoma in June – the only other road course the Sprint Cup Series visits. Pattie is taking the same car that won at Sonoma to Watkins Glen.
BRIAN PATTIE ON BOWYER AT WATKINS GLEN: “Clint is a good road course racer – he showed that earlier this year at Sonoma. He tells me that he’s good at Sonoma and he’s not very good at Watkins Glen, but I’m not sure that’s completely accurate. He runs well, but he doesn’t have a lot to show for it.
“I’m looking forward to this weekend. I know it’s going to be a good weekend and the results will be there when the race is over. With five races to go (before the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup), we’d love to get another win, but we are going in with the expectation of a single digit finish. If we finish (better than 10th) each week, then we have nothing to worry about in terms of the Chase.”
ON WATKINS GLEN: “I love Watkins Glen – it’s my favorite track that we visit each year. I’ve turned more laps there in a rental car then a lot of Cup Series drivers have in race conditions. We used to test there a lot – probably more than anywhere else I’ve tested. I worked with Ron Fellows there in the truck and Nationwide series and learned more from him than anyone else. He showed me what the car needs to do in order to be competitive and that’s helped me a lot throughout my career. I just love road course racing. It’s fun. It’s something a little different than we do each week and it’s always a competitive race. And each road course is completely different. Sonoma is slower speeds and probably closer to setting a car up for Martinsville. Watkins Glen is big and fast. It has longer breaking zones and much higher speeds, so the setups are a lot different. If you bring the same setup that we used to win at Sonoma to Watkins Glen, which would be like taking a car built and setup for Martinsville and trying to use it for Dover. It’s that much different.”
MWR
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