The race was won by Marcos Ambrose of Richard Petty Motorsports, his first career victory in the Cup series and also the first-ever Cup win by an Australian driver.

Watkins Glen International is one of two road courses to hold NASCAR races, the other being Infineon Raceway.

[9] Kyle Busch began leading, but when they entered turn 1 of the last two laps, he turned too far and immediately in second place Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose in third place passed him.

Ambrose continued to lead when a major crash occurred at turn 2 in the final lap involving Boris Said, David Ragan, David Reutimann and few other cars that saw Reutimann go airborne and end up on his roof.

This accident did not bring out the caution flag, but was brought out soon after when Tony Stewart spun out of control at the Inner Loop and Ambrose won the race.