Four Tires and Fuel: Watkins Glen

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Motor Racing Network Pit Reporters Kim Coon and Pete Pistone discuss a number of topics in this week’s Watkins Glen edition of “Four Tires and Fuel.”

Where does Chris Buescher’s Pocono win rank for you in the world of NASCAR upsets?

Kim: I really enjoyed seeing Buescher win. He’s a talented young driver and he couldn’t be nicer. It’s awesome to see smaller teams take the checkered flag and I love that his win has the potential to shake up the Chase standings. In terms of where it ranks? Since we finished the race under red instead of green, it doesn’t rank super-high on my list. I’d consider it an upset, for sure, but I’d probably put it somewhere in the middle in terms of best upsets.Pete: It was needed in a period that’s seen the super teams dominate the sport. You’d have to go back to 2014 to find drivers outside the powerhouse organizations winning races, when Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger won that season and made the Chase. Buescher’s win for Front Row Motorsports, even under unusual circumstances, demonstrates that every once in a while, that underdog story can happen in NASCAR and it did on a weird afternoon in Pocono.

Do suspensions of crew chiefs really impact a team’s performance?

Kim: No. Perfect example: We saw Kurt Busch take the checkered flag in June at Pocono with an interim crew chief. This weekend, Kevin Harvick finished fourth and would have likely competed for the win had we stayed green, and he did it “without” Rodney Childers. These teams are so structured and dialed in, they can still perform well without their crew chief on top of the box. And let’s be honest, the suspended crew chiefs are still in constant communication with their teams. It’s pretty much business as usual.Pete: Not at all. Now, …

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