NASCAR: What happens if you miss the Inner Loop at Watkins Glen?

You can certainly just ignore the Inner Loop at Watkins Glen, but it’s a stiff penalty if you do.

Of all the turns in the road course at Watkins Glen, the Inner Loop is perhaps the most fascinating. Located just before turn 5, also know as the carousel, this section of the track is also called the bus stop and looks like it was thrown in just to add an extra chicane to the layout.

That’s because it was. Several hard crashes of cars coming down the backstretch before turn 5 — including, sadly, one that claimed the life of J.D. McDuffie in the NASCAR Cup Series race at The Glen in 1991 — caused track officials to force cars to slow down before entering the carousel by adding the Inner Loop.

Of course, that’s if you make the trip around the chicane and don’t just drive right through it.

Wait, can you really do that like some kind of shortcut in a NASCAR video game? Well, kind of, but you won’t come out of it in the same position you entered it.

As the NBC Sports crew explained during the NASCAR XFINITY Series Zippo 200 on Saturday when Austin Dillon drove straight through the chicane, the rule if you miss the Inner Loop is this:

• You must come to a complete stop on the straight part of the chicane if you miss the dogleg. If you do, you can continue your drive through the Inner Loop and rejoin the race.
• If you do not come to a complete stop, you must come down pit road the next time by and serve a stop and go penalty.

The latter is worse than the former, but both penalties ensure any driver who fails to navigate the chicane will lose plenty of positions. Still, if the alternative is crashing, maybe just saying the heck with it and driving straight is worth it. Maybe.