With the road courses up ahead, one team that stands out with their performances at the road courses is Trackhouse Racing. Last year, at Watkins Glen, both Shane Van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch won the races in their respective series. But this time, according to Kevin Harvick, it might be difficult to do it. 

During a recent episode of the Happy Hour, Harvick expressed that though the team has fast cars, it's about whether the drivers can maximize their speed.

“When you’re not running good, it’s hard to bring a good horse to the place that you’re supposed to bring a good horse. And I think that they’re going to run well, but it’s just how good is the question. Yeah, they’re going to run good regardless, but how good?” 

During the race last year, Zilisch won the Glen race after leading 60 out of the 78 laps. Gisbergen led 38 laps and won the race by nearly 12 seconds. 

However, as mentioned by Harvick this year, the performance might be different, as both drivers have consistently complained about lacking power in their respective cars. During the race at Texas earlier this week, Zilisch also complained about the chattering of his tires that threw him down in 21st place. Throughout the season, Zilisch has just not found the pace he was expected to since his transition.

For Gisbergen, we all saw what happened at COTA. Despite being on his best speed with no mistakes, SVG just couldn't catch up with Tyler Reddick in the final laps.

The current layout of Watkins Glen features multiple long straights and requires the drivers to have power at their disposal. With this in mind, it will be interesting to see how the Trackhouse Racing stars perform at the upcoming road course.

Kevin Harvick talks about the challenges at Watkins Glen

While talking about the upcoming race in the same episode, Harvick's co-host Kaitlyn Vincie questioned him about the challenges that the track throws at the drivers. 

The 2006 Watkins Glen winner replied, saying, "Well, it all gets set up in turn two, and how you enter that corner and how you get to the exit of turn two?” 

He further added, "Because if you don’t have the car positioned to the right side of the racetrack for turn three, then it hurts you all the way down into the bus stop, and so that dictates the speed that you carry down that back straightaway."  

Harvick further explained that the drivers who are aggressive while being able to brake will be able to master the racetrack.

 Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason