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Pocono Raceway

Coordinates: 41°03′19″N 75°30′41″W / 41.05539°N 75.51152°W / 41.05539; -75.51152
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Pocono Raceway
"The Tricky Triangle"
Pocono Raceway Logo
LocationLong Pond Road and Andretti Road
Blakeslee, PA 18610
Time zoneGMT-5
Capacity76,812
OwnerMattco Inc.
OperatorIgdalsky and Mattioli families
Broke ground1969
Opened1971
Former namesPocono International Raceway
Major eventsNASCAR Sprint Cup Series
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
ARCA Racing Series
Websitehttps://www.poconoraceway.com/
Triangle
SurfaceAsphalt
Length2.5 miles (4 km)
Turns3
BankingTurn 1: 14°
Turn 2: 8°
Turn 3: 6°
Race lap record0:42.51 (Emerson Fittipaldi, Patrick Racing, 1989, CART IndyCar World Series)
Al Unser Jr. (#7) and Chet Fillip (#38) racing at Pocono in 1984.
A SCCA T-1 Camaro goes clockwise on the Pocono Raceway's front stretch, 1999
John Andretti at Pocono Raceway, 1998
Victory Lane at Pocono during pre-race ceremonies at the 2005 Pocono 500

Pocono Raceway (formerly Pocono International Raceway) also known as the Tricky Triangle, is a superspeedway located in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania at Long Pond. It is the site of two annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races held just weeks apart in June and August, and one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event in July.

Pocono is one of a very few NASCAR tracks not owned by either Speedway Motorsports, Inc. or International Speedway Corporation, the dominant track owners in NASCAR. It is run by the Igdalsky siblings Brandon, Nicholas, and sister Ashley, and cousins Joseph IV and Chase Mattioli, all of whom are third-generation members of the family-owned Mattco Inc, started by Joseph II and Rose Mattioli. Mattco also owns South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Virginia. The truck series began racing at Pocono in the 2010 season.

Outside of the NASCAR races, Pocono is used throughout the year by Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and motorcycle clubs as well as racing schools. The triangular oval also has three separate infield sections of racetrack – North Course, East Course and South Course. Each of these infield sections use a separate portion of the tri-oval to complete the track. During regular non-race weekends, multiple clubs can use the track by running on different infield sections. Also some of the infield sections can be run in either direction, or multiple infield sections can be put together – such as running the North Course and the South Course and using the tri-oval to connect the two.

Track configuration

Pocono Raceway has a unique design. Each turn is modeled after turns at 3 different tracks. Turn One (14 degree banking) was modeled after the now defunct Trenton Speedway, Turn Two (also known as "The Tunnel Turn") is like Indianapolis Motor Speedway (9 degree banking), and Turn 3 (6 degree banking) is similar to The Milwaukee Mile. It could be said to be a tri-oval, but the turns are much more severe than those of a more typical tri-oval such as Daytona and the track is really nearly a triangle. They have been likened somewhat to the hairpin-style turns of road courses. An additional complication is that the three turns are not identical, nor are any of the three straights identical in length. The banking of each turn is considerably less than on many other long ovals. Although the track is long (2.5 miles), the sharp nature of the turns and low banking tends to make the overall speeds much lower than at other tracks of similar lengths, thus restrictor plates are not needed here. For its unique characteristics, Pocono is sometimes referred to as a roval. Others refer to Pocono as a modified road course due to the use of shifting gears to handle the range between the slowest curve and the fastest straightaway.

The odd design makes the setup of the car and the crew's ability to make chassis adjustments even more crucial here than at many other tracks. Often it is the difference between a winning performance and a poor performance. Drivers tend to either love the track or hate it, largely depending on how well it suits their driving style and their crew's abilities.

In 1991 some drivers (notably Mark Martin) began shifting gears down the mammoth frontstretch to try and better navigate the corners. By 1993 the entire field was using a special transmission (known as a Jerico) to shift gears without using the clutch. Though shifting was criticized by some drivers (Rusty Wallace stated it took away from ability to pass cars while Terry Labonte pointedly called it "a pain in the butt") and some called for the Jerico to be banned on ovals, the practice continued until 2005 when a new gear rule eliminated the effectiveness of shifting. In 2011 the gear rule was changed again, allowing shifting to return to the track.

IndyCar races at Pocono

Main article: Pocono 500 (Indycar)

From 1971 to 1989, the United States Auto Club and the CART IndyCar World Series (later the Champ Car World Series before its 2008 merger into the Indy Racing League) held a 500-mile (800 km) race at Pocono as part of the IndyCar 500-mile Triple Crown. In 1989, Emerson Fittipaldi set a qualifying track record of 211.715 mph (340.722 km/h). However, after the 1989 race, the track was criticized for its roughness and lack of safety features, and was removed from the CART schedule.

Race of Champions

From 1977 to 1991, Pocono Raceway hosted the Race of Champions Modified race. From 1977 to 1979, the race was held on the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) triangular superspeedway; from 1980 onward, the three-quarter-mile infield oval was used. Richie Evans and George Kent were the leading winners, each winning two of the fifteen RoC events at Pocono. In 1992, the Race of Champions was moved to Flemington Raceway.

Notable events

  • July 1972: Massive flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes forced postponement of the Schaefer 500 to late July, in conjunction with USAC's Pennsylvania 500 for stock cars; Pocono became the first track to hold back-to-back 500 mile races in one weekend. Joe Leonard won the Schaefer 500 while Roger McClusky drove a Plymouth Superbird to win the Pennsylvania 500.
  • August 1, 1976: Petty scores a popular win after David Pearson blows a tire with two laps to go.
  • June 21, 1981: A.J. Foyt wins the USAC Van Scoy Diamond Mines 500. This is the final IndyCar race that USAC sanctioned at Pocono. From 1982–1989 the IndyCar races would be sanctioned by CART. It was also Foyt's final IndyCar win.
  • 1986–1987: Tim Richmond wins three Pocono races in a row. The third and last was the spring race in 1987. Richmond had just returned after missing the first part of the season battling HIV. Richmond was the first HIV positive race car driver to win a major race, this wasn't revealed for nearly four years.
  • June 19, 1988: On the opening lap of the 1988 Miller High-life 500, Bobby Allison suffered career-ending injuries when he spun and was T-boned by the #63 of Jocko Maggiacomo.
  • August 21, 1988: Bobby Rahal wins the CART Quaker State 500. This was Bobby's only win of the season. It was his final win with the Truesports IndyCar team, he would leave the team at the end of the season to join team Kraco (incidentally at the end of 1989 team Kraco merged with Galles racing to form Kraco-Galles). This was also the only win ever scored for the Judd engine.
  • August 20, 1989: Danny Sullivan wins the final CART Pocono 500. This was the final year of the IndyCar 500 mile triple crown.
  • July 28, 2002: Steve Park and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. became entangled exiting turn one, and both cars slammed into the inside wall, causing Park's vehicle to go airborne over the hood of Earnhardt's car and barrel roll. The incident resulted in a lengthy red flag to repair the old-fashioned highway barrier (a guardrail with wooden supports) that lined the inside of the track in that area. Soon afterward, all outdated barriers at the track were replaced with sturdier walls. The race was shortened by 25 laps due to this repair and rain delays throughout the race, Bill Elliott won the race.
  • 2006: Raybestos Rookie of the Year Denny Hamlin sweeps both races at Pocono.
  • June 6, 2008: Pocono raceway becomes one of the first NASCAR tracks in the country to utilize barcode-based ticketing.[2]
  • June 2008 James Hylton becomes the oldest driver to race at Pocono in the ARCA series.
  • August 2, 2008: Frank Kimmel, a 9-time ARCA Re/Max Series champion, was injured after a 3-car crash on lap 68 of a Pocono race that involved his car being clipped and slamming into the backstretch wall on the driver's side, going airborne as a result. Kimmel suffered a partially torn sphincter and pulled groin, spending the night in a local hospital before being released.
  • June 7, 2009: Tony Stewart wins the 2009 Pocono 500. In doing so, he becomes the first person who both owns and drives his car to win in Sprint Cup since Ricky Rudd in 1998. The double-file restart shootout style restart procedure was introduced at the race for the first time at a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points race.
  • June 6, 2010: With two laps to go, Kevin Harvick turned Joey Logano, setting up a green white checkered finish. On the last lap, Kasey Kahne got loose, went through the grass, was hit by Mark Martin and Greg Biffle, and flew through the air, completely destroying several hedges outside the track due to the absence of a catch fence. Denny Hamlin cruised to victory.
  • July 31, 2010: The Camping World Truck Series raced for the first time at Pocono, with the Pocono Mountains 125. It used a multi-truck qualifying format in which successive trucks were sent out 25 seconds apart. Elliott Sadler won the first event, for the Truck Series, at Pocono.
  • August 1, 2010: Jimmie Johnson clipped Kurt Busch on the Long Pond Straightaway and Busch spun across the track. Behind him Elliott Sadler was drop-kicked by teammate A.J. Allmendinger and punched the inside guardrail so savagely it ripped the engine out of the car and threw it to the entrance of the Tunnel Turn. Sadler's wrecked car slid to a stop back on the track and despite being shaken and suffering some pain he would climb out of the car slowly and was able to walk to the ambulance. The crash was recorded as the hardest hit in NASCAR history. This wreck (along with Kasey Kahne's crash in the spring race) aroused concern over the safety of the track and renovations were made to improve safety, adding SAFER barriers to the inside retaining wall and a catch fence on the Long Pond Straightaway. Greg Biffle won the race, days after owner Jack Roush was involved in a plane crash.
  • October 4, 2011: Improvement projects announced including repaving the track, installing a new flag stand, making the pit stalls concrete, and adding a new pit wall. This will be the first time the track has been repaved since 1995. The new flag stand comes from an incident in which a Camping World Truck Series hauler clipped the old stand and destroyed it back in August.
  • January 26, 2012: Founder and chairman of the board for Pocono Raceway, Joseph Mattioli, dies after a long illness.[2]
  • January 31, 2012: After a viewing and a funeral, Doc. Mattioli took his last lap around Pocono Raceway.[3][dead link]
  • April 25-26, 2012: Pocono Raceway hosts a Goodyear Tires Test for Sprint Cup Series and Camping World Truck series teams, the first event held following the repaving project.

Criticisms

Some vocal fans and drivers contend that the 500-mile (800 km) races at Pocono take too long, and several Sprint Cup Series drivers were quoted on FOX asserting that Pocono was the least exciting track on the circuit, including Denny Hamlin, who swept the speedway's races in 2006, and that they would like to see them shortened to 200 miles (320 km),.[3] On August 10, 2011 it was announced both races would be switched to 400 miles (640 km), beginning in 2012.

Defenders of the track note the challenges to the race teams, since they have to figure out the correct setup for all three turns which are completely different from one another; defenders of the track's 500-mile distances note the generally greater competitive depth in contrast with the 400 miler at Indianapolis, which takes place on a track very similar to Pocono and whose competitive depth has not been greater at shorter distances. Surprise outcomes have also been more frequent with 500-mile distances as opposed to shorter distances, illustrated by Greg Biffle's win in the 2010 Pennsylvania 500.

While some have called for NASCAR to take away one of the track's weekends, this is unlikely due to the Mattioli family's relationship with NASCAR and the track's proximity to both Philadelphia and New York City as well as the track's generally stronger ticket sales to most other speedways.

Others called for a Nationwide Series or Camping World Truck Series support race to be held at Pocono, since through the 2009 season it was one of only two Sprint Cup Series oval tracks (the other being Indianapolis) that was not on either the Nationwide Series or Camping World Truck Series schedule. But in 2010 the Truck Series debuted at Pocono in a spirited Pocono Mountains 125 won by Elliott Sadler, a short 50-lap sprint race of 125 miles (201 km), the shortest superspeedway race on the schedule since 1996 (most races on tracks one mile or longer are 200 miles or longer).

Pocono's support races during its Cup weekends have previously been exclusively for the ARCA stock car series. Jeff Purvis, Mike Wallace, Tim Steele, and Bob Schacht have been ARCA winners at Pocono.

Claims that the track is unsafe cite a lack of SAFER barriers and lack of paved runoff areas to scrub off speed for spinning cars among their criticisms. Some of these safety shortfalls were ostensibly illustrated in Elliott Sadler's crash where the engine was dislodged from the car from the force of the impact, resulting in paving of the Long Pond Straight apron, more SAFER barriers and a catchfence being added by the Igdalsky family for 2011.

On October 4, 2011 Pocono Raceway officials announced the next set of improvements which included repaving the entire track, adding a new pit wall and making the pit stalls concrete. These projects were completed in April 2012 with an official Goodyear Tire test held on April 25th and 26th at the track. [4]

Races

The pits at Pocono Raceway

Current

Former

Records

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Records

(As of 8/7/11)

Most Wins 5 Bill Elliott/Jeff Gordon
Most Top 5s 19 Mark Martin
Most Top 10s 33 Mark Martin
Starts 55 Ricky Rudd
Poles 5 Ken Schrader
Most Laps Completed 9884 Terry Labonte
Most Laps Led 957 Jeff Gordon
Avg. Start* 5.9 Denny Hamlin
Avg. Finish* 9.0 Jimmie Johnson

* from minimum 10 starts.

Environmental Initiatives

In July 2010 Pocono Raceway began the installation of a 3 megawatt solar photovoltaics system. Upon completion the racetrack became the largest solar-powered sports facility in the world. The "solar farm" encompasses approximately 25 acres and consists of almost 40,000 solar modules, which satisfies the energy consumption for the entire racing complex and will help power 1,000 homes.[5] By December 2010, with less than four months in operation, the Pocono system had surpassed the 1,000,000 kilowatt hour production mark. Over the next 20 years the system is expected to produce in excess of 72 million kilowatt hours and offset 3,100 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ SAFER barriers installation complete at Pocono
  2. ^ http://www.neweratickets.com/company/in-the-news/New-Era-Tickets-Helps-NASCAR-Fans-Speed-Through-the-Ticket-Gates/
  3. ^ NASCAR.COM – Cross' Words: Pocono – Jun 13, 2005
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ Pocono Raceway Takes The "Green" Flag In Solar Energy
  6. ^ Pocono Raceway Hits One Million kWh Mark

41°03′19″N 75°30′41″W / 41.05539°N 75.51152°W / 41.05539; -75.51152

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