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.

Finger Lakes

The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north-south lakes in a region called the finger lakes region in Central New York in the United States. This region is defined as a bioregion. They are a popular tourist destination.

The lakes' shapes reminded early map-makers of human fingers, and the name stuck. Cayuga (435 feet, 133 m) and Seneca (618 feet, 188 m) are among the deepest in the United States, with their bottoms well below sea level. The two longest are close to 40 miles long (64 km) from end to end, and never more than 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide. Cayuga (38.1 miles) is the longest, and Seneca 66.9 square miles (173 km²) the largest in total area.

Oneida Lake is generally not considered one of the Finger Lakes, but it is sometimes called the "thumb", while Seneca is the middle finger.

Lakes

The eleven Finger Lakes from east to west are:

Finger Lakes AVA

The Finger Lakes AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Upstate New York, south of Lake Ontario. The Finger Lakes encompass eleven glacial lakes, but the area around Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga Lakes contain the vast majority of vineyard plantings in the AVA. Cayuga and Seneca Lakes each have their own American Viticultural Areas completely contained within the Finger Lakes AVA (Cayuga Lake AVA and Seneca Lake AVA). The Finger Lakes AVA includes 11,000 acres (4,452 ha) of vineyards and is the largest wine-producing region in New York State.

Climate

The Finger Lakes AVA wine region is often compared to the German wine regions along the Rhine river. Riesling, one of the most important commercial wine grape varieties grown in Germany, is also one of the most successful grape varieties grown in the Finger Lakes AVA. Viticulturists in the Finger Lakes region grow a wide variety of grapes besides Riesling, including other European Vitis vinifera grapes, native American grapes, as well as French-American hybrid varieties.