INDYCAR Previews

Preview – 2016 INDYCAR Grand Prix at the Glen

By Dylan Reynolds, The Open Wheel

This weekend INDYCAR heads to Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York for the Verizon IndyCar Series INDYCAR Grand Prix at the Glen and the Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Watkins Glen Presented by Cooper Tires. The Open Wheel will be on-site covering the action all weekend so stay tuned to this site and our Twitter page @openwh33l for all of the latest news.

16 wgi testing

Photo by Chris Owens/INDYCAR

ScheduleEntry ListSpotter GuideCircuit MapPit Lane AssignmentsTickets

Indy Lights Preview: Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Watkins Glen Presented by Cooper Tires (Entry List), Race – Saturday, September 3, 2016 1:35PM (ET) – Indy Lights hasn’t raced at Watkins Glen while a current driver was in the series and didn’t release results from Tuesday’s test so there isn’t much track-specific information to work off of for this one. However, Santiago Urrutia has won 4 of the 6 races on natural terrain road courses this season (Barber, Road America, Mid-Ohio) including the last 3. Needless to say, he’s going to be tough to beat this weekend. Ed Jones won Race #1 at Barber and Zach Veach won Race #1 at Road America. My pick to win: Santiago Urrutia

Verizon IndyCar Series Preview: INDYCAR Grand Prix at the Glen, Sunday, September 4, 2016 2:00PM (ET) NBCSN – The Verizon IndyCar Series hasn’t raced at Watkins Glen International since Will Power’s win in 2010. Previous driver experience at WGI shows 8 drivers with previous experience at the track (Andretti, Castroneves, Dixon, RHR, Kanaan, Power, Rahal, and Sato). Scott Dixon has 3 wins on the circuit and Ryan Hunter-Reay and Will Power are the only other drivers with IndyCar Series wins at WGI with 1 each. Andretti (3), Dixon (4), and Kanaan (3) all have multiple Top 5 finishes at WGI. James Hinchcliffe was 2nd in a thrilling finish in the 2010 Indy Lights race at WGI. My pick to win: Will Power – Power has been on fire lately and that should translate to a great showing at Watkins Glen where he won the last race in 2010. His deficit to championship leader Simon Pagenaud is down to just 28 points and he has a big chance to cut that some more before the double points finale at Sonoma Raceway.

My fantasy.indycar.com picks: Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Sebastien Bourdais, Conor Daly – Dixon has the best experience in the field at Watkins Glen and should be a bargain at $29. I like my chances at value for the money with Newgarden ($28) and Bourdais ($24). That leaves $19 for Daly, Andretti, Enerson, Hawksworth, or Chilton. Of that group, Marco has the best experience at the track but the results just haven’t been there this year so I’m going with Daly.