The NASCAR Sprint Cup series came to Watkins Glen International in 1986. In this event, stock cars race ninety laps in a 221-mile race, and at the end some lucky—and highly skilled—driver gets to take a trophy home. NASCAR aficionados are aware that some races are known as much for their trophies as for their racetracks. They run the gamut from clunky to fun, including a live lobster in the twenty-pound range for winning at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. There’s a trophy, too, but no one cares. The most iconic is Roanoke’s Martinsville Speedway, which partnered with Grand Home Furnishings in 1964 to award a full-size grandfather clock to the winner. The idea was that the driver’s wife would let him keep this trophy in the living room. (Richard Petty has twelve of them. To date no woman has won there, so who knows how husbands feel about it as a trophy.)

In 2010, when WGI President Michael Printup spearheaded the initiative to develop a distinctive trophy embodying the track and Finger Lakes region, he went to Corning Museum of Glass and said, “Let’s make a trophy that nobody will ever forget.” And they did. The final design incorporates the shape of the racetrack (minus “the boot” section that is not a part of the NASCAR laps), the signature blue of the guard rails, and glass.

It took two years to create the design and figure out the best way to execute it. The center is the blue glass racetrack, the outline clearly viewed from the top, which gets stretched out all the way to the bottom. Glass does not like to be in an asymmetrical shape, so stretching it and keeping that shape throughout is a challenge. At first, they made a mold to pour the glass in, but that didn’t work. They ended up creating a mold that shapes half the track, and the other half is shaped by hand.

Hot Glass Programs Manager Eric Meek has been involved since the beginning and is justifiably proud of the design and his team of six. Glassmaking is always a team endeavor, he explains, “but when a project gets bigger and heavier you need more people.” When they are working on it, the piece starts at sixteen pounds, and during the process they cut eight pounds off during cold work.

First, they gather clear glass by dipping a metal pipe into a furnace of molten glass. Next, the iconic blue glass is added and then pushed and molded into the shape of the racetrack. This gets coated three or four times in layers of clear glass, like a candy apple but with a really long metal stick. When the clear glass encasing the track-shaped blue glass has made a nice round shape, they alternately heat and pull it into what Eric describes as “this beautiful, elegant, triumphant form,” which flares at the top and bottom. The glass trophy rests on a base of Finger Lakes bluestone.

Another element of the design is how the flow of the blue glass inside recalls the many waterfalls around Watkins Glen that flow into Seneca Lake. Eric describes it as “embodying the region, the town of Watkins Glen, and the Watkins Glen International track.” Each one takes about forty-five minutes to make. Out of every ten or so they get four good ones because “the variables are such that it’s really difficult to hit it on the head.” Over the years, the shape has evolved to be more elongated.

“No trophy is truly exactly like another,” Eric adds.

Eric’s appreciation for the nature of this collaboration has also evolved over the years. “I’ve realized how important this is to community identity and community pride,” he explains. “What brings me the greatest satisfaction is how the folks at the track like to talk about it.”

Current WGI President Dawn Burlew brags about the trophy, saying it “has significantly enhanced the track’s reputation and elevated its connection to the region. This trophy helps to create a buzz around our event.” This year the NASCAR race weekend, known as Go Bowling at the Glen since 2018, is on August 10 (more information at theglen.com). For years there have been three events, and the other two trophies are a glass bowl and a chalice, also incorporating the guardrail blue. For 2025 the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has been added as a fourth event. “Events such as Winning Wednesday [July 9] celebrate the partnership between the Corning Museum of Glass and Watkins Glen International, further promoting awareness among drivers, fans, and our region.”

Before becoming WGI president, Dawn was an executive at Corning Incorporated, the company behind the 1982 purchase of the racetrack after it had been abandoned. It’s due to Corning Enterprises that NASCAR returned to Watkins Glen, therefore the glass trophy is also a nod to the company that rescued the track. A glass trophy stands out from the other NASCAR trophies and looks just as good in the living room as a grandfather clock. Eric likes watching the winner’s reaction to the trophy, and it’s important to him that it be there in the winners circle.

“We’ll make a new one if it gets knocked over,” he says.

So far so good.