The 2009 Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen was a

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

event held on August 10, 2009, at

Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen International, nicknamed "The Glen", is an automobile race track in the Northeastern United States, northeastern United States, located in Dix, New York, just southwest of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, Watkins Glen, at the ...

. The race was rained out on the original scheduled day of August 9. The race was won by points leader

Tony Stewart Anthony Wayne Stewart (born May 20, 1971), nicknamed "Smoke", is an American semi-retired professional auto racing driver, and former NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing. He currently competes in the NHRA Top Fuel class. He is a four-t ...

, his third win of the year. Stewart scored his fifth win at Watkins Glen. With that win, he passed

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American stock car racing executive and former professional stock car racing driver who currently serves as the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, d ...

as the all time NASCAR winner at the Glen. As of 2019, that record still stands. Also with his win in that race, Tony Stewart would score his seventh career road course win, breaking him out a four-way tie for second in all time road course wins with

Bobby Allison Robert Arthur Allison (December 3, 1937 – November 9, 2024) was an American professional stock car racing driver and owner. Allison was the founder of the Alabama Gang, a group of drivers based in Hueytown, Alabama, where there were abundant ...

Rusty Wallace Russell "Rusty" William Wallace Jr. (born August 14, 1956) is an American former NASCAR racing driver. He won the 1984 NASCAR Cup series NASCAR Rookie of the Year, Rookie of the Year and the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series, 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup ...

, and

Ricky Rudd Richard Lee Rudd (born September 12, 1956), nicknamed "the Rooster", is an American former racing driver and racing team owner. He is the uncle of actor Skeet Ulrich and former NASCAR Busch Series driver Jason Rudd. He retired in 2007 with 23 ...

. Stewart would win an additional road course race at Sonoma in 2016, the year he retired. As of 2019, Tony Stewart is currently in second place with eight road course wins, as Jeff Gordon currently holds the all-time record with nine wins. During the race, a hard crash involving

Sam Hornish Jr. Samuel Jon Hornish Jr. (born July 2, 1979) is an American semi-retired professional auto racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 22 Ford Mustang for Team Penske in 2017. Hornish began his top-ti ...

, and

Jeff Burton Jeffrey Tyler Burton (born June 29, 1967), nicknamed "the Mayor", is an American former professional stock car racing driver and current racing commentator. He is a member of the Burton racing family. He scored 23 career victories in the NASCAR ...

, left the drivers shaken but alright.

Kasey Kahne Kasey Kenneth Kahne (; born April 10, 1980) is an American professional dirt track racing and stock car racing driver. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 33 Chevrolet SS for Richard Childress Racing. Currently, K ...

got loose under Hornish and Hornish slid hard into the tire barrier. Then Hornish spun back onto the track and Gordon had no way to avoid him and they made hard contact sending Gordon head on into the

Armco barrier Traffic barriers (known in North America as guardrails or guard rails, in Britain as crash barriers, and in auto racing as Armco barriers AK Steel (formerly Armco) genericized trademark) keep vehicles within their roadway and prevent them from co ...

and Hornish into Jeff Burton, which nearly sent Hornish on his side. Gordon's hit into Hornish ended up destroying the whole rear of Hornish's car including ripping out the fuel cell. In the late stages of the race, fuel mileage was an issue but no one had any problems. Stewart held off a strong

Marcos Ambrose Marcos Ross Ambrose (born 1 September 1976) is an Australian former racing driver and current Garry Rogers Motorsport competition director. He won the Australian V8 Supercar series' championship in 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series, 2003 and ...

for the win. Drivers from five countries were in the race including the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. A crowd of 85,000 live spectators watched this 146-minute racing event where the average green flag run was almost 13 laps long. Owing to the high number of accidents and resulting amount of debris, more than 14% of the event was raced under a caution flag.

Top ten finishers

Timeline

Section reference: * Start of race: Kurt Busch had the pole position as the green flag was waved * Lap 20: Marcos Ambrose took over the lead from Kurt Busch * Lap 28: Kurt Busch took over the lead from Marcos Ambrose * Lap 29: Marcos Ambrose took over the lead from Kurt Busch * Lap 30: Jimmie Johnson took over the lead from Marcos Ambrose * Lap 34: Kyle Busch took over the lead from Jimmie Johnson * Lap 46: Tony Stewart took over the lead from Kyle Busch * Lap 56: Kurt Busch took over the lead from Tony Stewart * Lap 59: David Stremme took over the lead from Kurt Busch * Lap 60: Scott Speed took over the lead from David Stremme * Lap 64: Kyle Busch took over the lead from Scott Speed * Lap 67: Tony Stewart took over the lead from Kyle Busch * Finish: Tony Stewart was officially declared the winner of the event

Standings after the race

References

Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen The Go Bowling at The Glen is a NASCAR Cup Series race held at Watkins Glen International since 1957. The race is held as a 90 lap, 220.86 mile (355.440 km) race. Chris Buescher is the defending race winner in 2024. History Prior to 1986, three ...

NASCAR races at Watkins Glen International August 2009 sports events in the United States {{NewYork-sport-stub