The Case for a timed NASCAR endurance race at Watkins Glen
- clehman1992
- May 8
- 4 min read
The Coke 600 is NASCAR's current endurance race, but is it time for NASCAR to leverage the road course capabilities of the Next Gen car into a formal 6-hour timed endurance race to challenge teams in a new way?
A Surge in Popularity for Endurance Racing
Endurance racing is in a golden era, which is not just a marketing buzzword, but is a measurable exponential increase in fan engagement, revenue, manufacturer participation, and cultural reference.
A large part of this golden era is a result of the 2023 unification between IMSA and WEC on the ruleset for their top class. Prior to 2023, a car built for the Rolex 24 at Daytona could not run the 24 hours of Le Mans. The unification of the rules attracted Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Cadillac, and Lamborghini, among others.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2026 set the record for most fans in attendance at 180,000+ and TV viewership was up nearly 50% from 2025 numbers.
Max Verstappen's participation in the NLS2 race at Nurburgring Nordschleife in March 2026 broke viewership records for that series as well. Previously, no English stream had ever exceeded 150,000 streams, but with Max Verstappen piloting the #3 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3, the English stream had over 1.1 million viewers and 1 million viewers watched the on-board for car 3.
#3 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 leaves the garage area packed with fans at the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie Race 2 on March 21, 2026. Credit: Gruppe C GmbH / Red Bull Content Pool
Why Watkins Glen?
Watkins Glen is considered the birthplace of modern American road racing. It hosted Formula 1 from 1961 to 1980 and is an IMSA favorite.
NASCAR already races at Watkins Glen International. The stands are packed with a mix of locals and motorsports tourists in town for the race. Extensive on site camping has years long wait lists for prominent locations. Few tracks are considered a "must" to experience in person, but Watkins Glen is among them.
A true endurance event would allow NASCAR to utilize the boot instead of the traditional short track. The boot adds more passing opportunities and viewing space for fans.
The history of Watkins Glen as the birthplace of American road racing makes it the ideal location for NASCAR to experiment with a new race format.
Secondary Drivers
6 hours of turning laps at Watkins Glen would be too physically and mentally demanding on the drivers to complete in a safe manner.
A basis for stint rules could look something like this:
Minimum Drive Time: 1 hour 30 minutes.
Maximum Continuous Stint: 3 hours + 1 lap
Maximum Total Time: 4 hours
The stint rules keep driver safety in mind while also giving meaningful seat time to co-drivers who could be traveling into the country just for this race.
The spirit of the event would be to bring in drivers from outside of NASCAR to broaden NASCAR's audience. To a social media savvy team, driver announcements would rival the best Darlington throwback reveal hype videos.
Below are a couple of teammate pairing ideas:
Jamie Whincup. Credit: Mark Horsburgh / Red Bull Content Pool
Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup - SVG is already the best in the business on a road course. Jamie Whincup is SVG's former teammate, Team Principal, and the consensus "GOAT" of Supercars having amassed a series leading 7 Championships and 125 wins, not to mention 4 Bathurst 1000 wins. This pairing would border on unfair to the rest of the grid. Ford might step in and try to interfere with this given Triple Eight is now the homologation team for Ford in Supercars, but with Red Bull footing the bill, Trackhouse gets first dibs.
Nyck de Vries at 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 10, 2025. Credit: Toyota Gazoo Racing
Ty Gibbs and Nyck de Vries - Nyck was not given at fair shake at AlphaTauri F1 Team in Formula 1 and that stint has unfortunately been a defining moment in his career. Nyck is a former Formula E and Formula 2 Champion and is enjoying a successful career with Toyota Gazoo Racing in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) Series, including a P2 finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2024. Toyotas "Young Guns" are a formidable duo.
Scott McLaughlin at the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington on March 13, 2025. Credit: Penske Entertainment, Joe Skibinski
Ryan Blaney and Scott McLaughlin - Scott McLaughlin is one of the most successful Team Penske drivers of all time. He is a 3 time Supercars Champion, Bathurst 1000 winner, and has 7 Indycar wins to his name. Blaney and McLaughlin are a race winning pairing.
More Event Specific Rules
There are a lot of rules that would need modification for this event both technical and procedural. A few would be:
NASCAR's traditional approach to cautions would need to be amended so that full course cautions are not default. Watkins Glen has clear sightlines and utilizing local yellows is a necessity when intervention by track workers is not required.
Stages end at hour 2 and 4 without caution. It would be worth considering increasing points payouts proportional to the additional length of the race.
1 additional pit crew member is allowed over the wall during a driver swap to facilitate the swap and verify relief driver is securely in the car.
The Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP) Clock is scrapped to allow teams to make repairs and get back on track.
A technical/engineering consideration would be braking. Current brakes are designed for maximum reliability, but a mostly green 6 hour race would be over the functioning life of the current brake system. IMSA already utilizes the technology for 60 second brake changes, NASCAR would need to explore a cost analysis.
A digital display somewhere on the car, likely in the top right corner of the windshield or in the window behind the driver would display what position the car is currently running in and the letter A or B would be displayed to note which driver is currently in the car.
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