NASCAR shifted its Watkins Glen race weekend from August to May this year, but didn’t even wait for it to get started before confirming it will move it later in the season in 2027.
Watkins Glen track president Dawn Burlew provided the update on Thursday, coincidental to the track announcing that camper move-in has been delayed until Friday due to muddy conditions. The area’s traditionally wet and cool spring weather was noted as a concern by many when the May date was announced.
Next year’s race will be held in early September and fall within The Chase postseason stretch. Watkins Glen’s only postseason appearance came with a September date in 2024 when the The Playoffs format was in effect.
The Watkins Glen weekend was held in August every year from 1986 through 2023 and again in 2025.
“I think what we’ve done is our merchandise, we’ve looked at it when we saw the date, and we said, OK, we need to shift our merchandise from all T-shirts and tank tops to long sleeves and things like that,” Burlew told NASCAR.com. “But then again, we did some really cool stuff for Mother’s Day with our merchandise, so we just took a whole different twist to it when we started getting ready and planning for this weekend. We’re more celebrating just a different date, because it gave us a whole different way to plan. Instead of just doing traditional flowers, we did more mulch and tulips that my team planted last fall, which normally we wouldn’t do, but we said, OK, that’s something different. So we just embraced it that way.”
Another change this year is the imposition of track limits for Turn 1 and the Turn 5 exit from the carousel, which will be enforced by tire barriers.
Trackhouse Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen is the defending winner of the Go Bowling At The Glen Cup Series race and is the favorite to win this year ahead of his teammate Connor Zilisch and points leader Tyler Reddick.
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