Background NASCAR uses.
Watkins Glen International is one of two road courses to hold
NASCAR races, the other being
Sonoma Raceway. The standard short road course at Watkins Glen International is a 7-turn course that is long; the track was modified in 1992, adding
the Inner Loop, which lengthened the long course to and the short course to the current length of .
Marcos Ambrose was the defending race winner after winning the race in
2011 and
2012. On August 6, it was announced that
Tony Stewart would not be participating after breaking both bones in his right leg in a Sprint car accident at Southern Iowa Speedway in
Oskaloosa, Iowa, on the night of August 5. Instead, road racing veteran
Max Papis would step in and replace Stewart for the Watkins Glen event, with future drivers to be decided for the next four or five oval races. This marked the first race since his debut in the
1999 Daytona 500 that a Sprint Cup race did not have Stewart in the field, ending a streak of 521 straight starts for Stewart.
Entry list (R) - Denotes rookie driver.
(i) - Denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
Practice and qualifying Qualifying order Source: Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Group 8 Race Start The race was scheduled to start at 1:18 p.m. EDT,
Marcos Ambrose led the field to the green flag on lap 1.
1st caution, restart and wreck The first caution came out on lap 15 for a crash by
Jeff Gordon in the back straightaway, the race restarted on lap 19, a couple of laps later, the second caution came out for a multi-car crash in the straightaway, by lap 41, the race was red flagged for seven minutes for cleanup on the track, the race restarted on lap 43.
Quarter mark The third caution came out when
Kyle Busch spun into the tires, and was out of gas, the race restarted on lap 63, A couple of laps later, the fourth caution came out for a wreck again on lap 80, some cars were involved in the crash, the race restarted on lap 86, and the fifth caution came out on lap 85 for a crash by
Marcos Ambrose, The race restarted on lap 88, and
Kyle Busch won his race at Watkins-Glen. ==Results==