“Mini Tornado” Disrupts Racing at Watkins Glen

Mud, Chaos, and Then the Wind Showed Up

Watkins Glen already had plenty going on before the halfway point of the race. Campers were getting stuck in the early-season mud, and it already had that “nothing is going according to plan” kind of energy.

Then lap 40 of 100 hit, and things went from messy to downright wild.

Something Lifted Off the Ground

NASCAR was forced to throw a caution when a canopy suddenly got picked up out of the campground area. It lifted, floated into the infield for a moment, and then blew right over the fence and onto the racetrack.

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That’s when the radio chatter started sounding less like a race and more like people trying to describe a weather documentary in real time.

“What was that?”

Clint Bowyer could be heard asking, “What’s that, Kevin?” before adding it looked like something straight out of a wind tunnel or a “wind tornado” ripping through the infield.

Austin Dillon radioed in that it looked like a mini tornado on the ground, picking up everything in sight and even tossing tents around—one of them right onto the track.

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Zane Smith didn’t sugarcoat it either, calling it “huge” and saying it was throwing everything across the backstretch. Tyler Reddick checked in, asking if anyone else could see it, with his team confirming they were watching tents fly.

No Official Answer Yet

As of now, there’s been no confirmation from the National Weather Service on whether it was an actual tornado, a dust devil, or just a very aggressive wind event.

But either way, it had campers hanging on to whatever they could—and drivers watching debris fly across a racetrack that suddenly felt a lot less predictable than usual.