“A major snub to Watkins Glen”
From John Kucko, Follow him on Facebook
Watkins Glen NY, August 20, 2025
Sorry folks, there’s no other way to put it.
Today NASCAR released its 2026 racing schedule and the beloved road course race at Watkins Glen, an August staple for decades, has been moved to Mother’s Day weekend in 2026. For years, tens of thousands have flocked to the Finger Lakes for this August tradition.
Back in the day, when NASCAR was in its heyday, crowds were estimated to be in the 150,000 range. I learned of this earlier today—spent a good part of my afternoon trying to process this before posting. I covered 30 years of races there at The Glen in my TV sports days before transitioning to this digital life. This is a major snub to Watkins Glen—there’s no other way to frame it. The village, the entire community and region, has embraced the stock car race there for years. NASCAR made alterations, creating a street course race in San Diego among them, and the result is Watkins Glen gets a May date—May 10th to be exact. Mother’s Day of all days! And we all know what the weather can be like that time of year.
I can only conclude that NASCAR is doing everything it can to remain relevant. To me, the sport is nothing like it was in the 1990’s. They’ll pursue big market opportunities—often at the cost of smaller locales. In my view, today was a sad day for race fans across New York State and the Northeast.
