Contested over 90 laps on the 2.45 miles (3.94 kilometres) road course, it was the 22nd race of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Despite having Kevin Harvick filling his rearview mirror, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was able to maintain the lead to complete the first Pocono sweep since Denny Hamlin in 2006.

Harvick was impressed with his car's speed in both Pocono races, and that his team "were able to capitalize on it and get a good finish".

Aric Almirola, Michael Annett, Clint Bowyer, Austin Dillon and Ryan Newman were issued penalties for blend line violations.

Gordon had set Watkins Glen as a priority in his 2014 campaign, as he felt he had "run so poorly here recently" and that his team "loses confidence in their car and you get off track and lost a little bit.

[18] Zipadelli confirmed pre-race that Stewart "feels strongly this is the right thing to do" and that his Stewart-Haas Racing team supported and agreed with his decision.

Kevin Harvick made an unscheduled stop on lap four to remove a bean bag from his car.

Cole Whitt brought out the first caution of the race on lap 10 after his brakes locked up and he collided head on into the tire barrier in turn 1.

The next lap, Brad Keselowski made contact with Matt Kenseth in turn 1 and the grill of his car caved in.

Two laps later, David Ragan and Boris Said blew the entrance to the inner loop and fell back in the running order.

Gordon began losing power going down the back stretch and brought out the second caution of the race on lap 51.

Greg Biffle drifted into the runoff area on the exit of turn 5 and came across the front of Ryan Newman.

We lost (safety expert) John Melvin a couple of weeks ago and he did a lot of innovations for this sport, and it's really sad that they haven't adapted any of them here at this racetrack.

Upon his return to pit road, McDowell also spoke with Welch, stating that "it seems like when I do it they are usually fairly big", referring to a previous crash that he had suffered at the 2008 Samsung 500, at Texas Motor Speedway.

[22] The race was red flagged for 81 minutes while the Armco barriers were repaired, and as the cars started running again,[23] Carl Edwards stayed out when the leaders came in to pit.

The sixth caution period came out the following lap, when Denny Hamlin spun and crashed into the gravel-filled barrels at the entrance to pit road.

In a non-connected incident, Alex Kennedy hit the wall on the exit of turn one, to bring out the sixth caution, the race was red flagged for a second time.

Following a delay of around 20 minutes, the race restarted, and Allmendinger held off a hard charging Ambrose with two laps to go to score his first career Sprint Cup Series victory.

Ambrose recorded his sixth top-three finish in Sprint Cup races at Watkins Glen, but praised the performance of his late-race rival, Allmendinger.