NASCAR races on longer tracks, faster tracks and certainly straighter tracks, but nowhere with the varied history of Watkins Glen International — “The Glen,” to friends and family.

The village of Watkins Glen is in Middle of Nowhere, New York, 64 miles from Syracuse and 66 miles from Rochester. Figuratively speaking, it sits at the bottom of Lake Seneca, which is one of the narrow and vertical lakes making up New York’s Finger Lakes Region.

The Glen says hello to the NASCAR playoffs for the first time this year. It also says sayonara, since next year it’ll be the 24th race of the regular season.

Let’s take a spin around The Glen and the nearby village.

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∎ The basics: Watkins Glen has several potential layouts. NASCAR uses its “Inner Loop” course, which is 2.45 miles with eight turns. The inner loop is actually a chicane, added in 1992 just before the long backstretch ends at a hard right turn.

∎ Why add the chicane? A year earlier, in 1991, sports-car racer Tommy Kendall crashed his IMSA prototype into the outer tire wall at the end of the backstretch, severely injured his legs and limps to this day. Seven weeks later on NASCAR weekend, J.D. McDuffie lost his breaks in the same area, crashed hard into the tire barrier and didn’t survive.

∎ Currently, NASCAR is the prime big-league racing tenant, visiting The Glen with its Cup and Xfinity Series, as well as its sports-car IMSA Series and ARCA. Trans-Am also races at The Glen.

∎ The track is part of NASCAR’s speedway portfolio. From 1997-2019, it was owned by the Daytona Beach-based International Speedway Corp., which was purchased and folded into NASCAR in 2019.

∎ Watkins Glen’s racing history dates back to the 1940s and a street circuit that included the streets of downtown. A fatal crash in 1952 took the life of a young fan, injured several others, and soon thereafter a permanent closed-course track was under construction. The track opened in 1955 and soon became a stop for many circuits.

∎ NASCAR raced at Watkins Glen three times from 1957-65, then returned to begin its annual visits in 1986. Tim Richmond won that race. Tony Stewart’s five Glen wins are the most in NASCAR.

∎ The Indy cars raced there from 1979-81, then again from 2005-10 and 2016-17. Six-time IndyCar champ Scott Dixon won four times at Watkins Glen.

∎ What is a glen? It’s a narrow valley tucked into mountains that may or may not form a stream.

∎ Formula One’s U.S. Grand Prix was run at Watkins Glen from 1961-80. Open-wheel legends Jimmy Clark and Graham Hill won six of the first seven F1 races there.

∎ The 1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen is considered the most highly attended concert in history. Some 600,000 watched the marathon show that began with the Grateful Dead, who were followed by The Band and finally the headlining Allman Brothers.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Watkins Glen: Host to NASCAR but also Grateful Dead and The Band