WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (WENY) - It's officially NASCAR week at Watkins Glen International as the track gears up to host its first playoff race.
Some campers will be showing up to WGI on Tuesday with gates for campers opening at 7 AM on Wednesday.
Cars will hit the track starting on Friday with the ARCA Menards Series General Tire 100 at the Glen. Then on Saturday, it's the Xfinity Series Mission Foods 200 at the Glen at 3:30 PM. Finally, it all leads up to Sunday's Go Bowling at the Glen Cup Series race at 3 PM.
WENY Sports caught up with WGI President, Dawn Burlew, and she discussed preparations for the week ahead, saying the team is excited to see their plans start to unravel in a very positive way.
"It's just been a super process with the whole team and the rest of the NASCAR family and all of our team members that are not even necessarily here on property, but are all over," Burlew said. "They're all coming together to put the event on so it's been pretty exciting and I think every time somebody new lands and comes on property it's like there's another piece of the puzzle."
Burlew also talked about some of the events the track will host throughout the week, and how exciting it is to host a playoff race.
"For us to be a part of the playoff for the first time is just an honor for us to be a part of that as the NASCAR schedule for this year and we've been planning on that and working on that since last September so I think all we've done is we've built on the programming," Burlew said. "We've got some great events planned over the next four or five days. We've got a lot of new things that are going to happen for the fans. We have an expanded fan experience, kids zone, concerts, hot saw racing. We're doing a pretty cool event on Wednesday night for 9/11 and the camper welcome party. There's just something for everybody."
More information on this week's events and NASCAR races can be found at theglen.com.
Make sure to stick with WENY throughout the week as we bring you our Thunder at the Glen coverage, brought to you by Williams Toyota of Elmira.