1999 Frontier @ the Glen

The 1999 Frontier @ the Glen was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race held at Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, New York on April 15, 1999. It was the 21st points-paying event of the 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. Rusty Wallace won the pole, and Jeff Gordon won the race for the third consecutive year. A total of 49 cars attempted the race.

Summary

Practice and Qualifying

Practice and Kendall Pole Day, scheduled for Friday August 13, were both delayed for several hours due to inclement weather conditions. First-round qualifying would be held that day, allowing qualifying positions 1-25 to be locked into the field, but second-round qualifying would be rained out, forcing spots 25-36 to be locked in based on their first round qualifying speeds, and positions 37-43 were locked in based on owner points. Two drivers who failed to qualify, Jack Baldwin and Paul Gentilozzi made their only attempts at a Winston Cup event during this race. Rusty Wallace set a new track record with his pole-qualifying speed at 121.234 mph.

Cheez-It 355 at The Glen

The Cheez-It 355 at The Glen is a 90-lap, 220.5-mile (354.9 km) annual NASCAR Sprint Cup stock car race held at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York, on the 2.45-mile (3.94 km) road course. It is one of two road course races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule, the other being the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

History

When NASCAR returned in 1986, they utilized the 1971 Six Hours course. In the 1991 race, J. D. McDuffie was killed in a crash in the Outer Loop, at the end of the backstretch. Following that crash, and another serious crash by IMSA driver, Tommy Kendall, the Inner Loop bus stop chicane was added just before the Outer Loop. NASCAR has since utilized this 2.45-mile (3.94 km) "short course," and has never utilized the "Boot" as the Indy Racing League has. Drivers, however, have been pushing for the use of the full course.

During a 2011 Mobil Oil "Car Swap" at Watkins Glen using the course, Tony Stewart pushed for using the Grand Prix course after driving demonstration laps in both his Chevrolet Impala and the majority of his laps in a McLaren MP4-23 as part of the event with Lewis Hamilton.