Pocono 500 Preview

What is Pocono? Is it a triangle, or a road course? Can you consider it an oval, or because of its three straights and three turns is it more of a “tri”-oval? The 2.5 mile triangular shaped “roval” (a NASCAR term for the track, which combines elements of a road course and an oval) will host a 200-lap, 500 mile stress test of endurance this weekend as 43 of NASCAR’s best duke it out during the Pocono 500.

Pocono gets a bad rap for being a “boring” 500 mile race. For me, nothing beats plopping down on the couch for a few hours and watching the stars of NASCAR zip down the longest straightaway in the sport, fanning out on re-starts five and six wide before a harrowing narrowing down into turn one at over 200 miles per hour.

Plus, Pocono is a great indicator of who will run well at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Brickyard 400, which kicks off in 51 days. What better reason to watch Pocono than that? Last year, Mark Martin went out and qualified second, then claimed he had a car to beat at Indy. Who—if anyone—will have that same feeling this year? We’ll find out when the green flag drops on TNT’s “Summer Tour” on Sunday afternoon.

I offer my thoughts on that and much more as we all look forward to the Pocono 500.

1. TNT, they’re dynamite

TNT’s “Summer Tour” starts Sunday with pre-race coverage at 12:30. We’ll join Kyle Petty, Wally Dallenbach and Bill Weber as they call the shots of Sunday’s action. No more Digger, no more, “Boogity, Boogity, Boogity” and no more Hollywood Hotel. TNT’s coverage of races is much better—at least in the eyes of this ‘reporter’—than Fox or ESPN.

Even though the “Wally’s World” segments are a little corny, Wally gives good insight on how to run a lap at the track where the race is being held (because where else would he run a lap?). I love Kyle Petty, so it’s always nice to hear how involved he gets with the telecast, giving us a recent driver’s perspective.

Bill Weber will alert us that TNT needs to take a commercial break—something that the other stations don’t do—and they’ll break in if there is a caution, once again, something that Fox or ESPN do not do.

Maybe it’s just me, but I love TNT’s coverage of NASCAR, and although they’ll only be with us for the next six weeks, it might be the best six weeks on the schedule. Enjoy them, because as I said earlier, TNT…they’re dynamite.

2. Double file re-starts?

NASCAR officially announced that the fans do have a voice and that NASCAR will institute double file restarts this weekend at Pocono.

When asked about it on Tuesday, here’s what Mark Martin had to say: “There will be winners and losers with the decision. The fans will definitely be winners.”

Matt Kenseth—amongst others—chimed in as well when NASCAR announced the rule modification yesterday. The 2003 Champ said, “I think there'll be some weeks that it'll be good and I think there'll be some weeks where you could draw the short straw and get the shaft …I mean, if you're at Martinsville or Indy or some of these one-lane tracks and you're running fourth, and you start on the second row, outside, you're probably going to be in big trouble…”

My opinion on the issue? Well, I’m still undecided. I want to see double file restarts late in the race, but not necessarily throughout the entire race. Let’s say there was a caution on lap 15 at Indy (and no, not a competition caution either). Would I want to see cars two wide battling it out for the preferred line—as Kenseth mentioned—and possibly creating a huge wreck, wiping out half the field?

Not really, but if there were fifteen to go and it gave us a better finish, I’m all for it. I think within the last 50 to 100 laps of the race (depending on the location of the event) then NASCAR should go to double file restarts. Of course if that happened, it may create more confusion than the clock rules in college football.

No matter what the rule change may be, it’ll be better than watching your favorite driver start fourth, and being eighth in the line, battling it out with lapped down cars in the closing laps of the race. That’s something we can all agree on.

3. Whoever is fast at Pocono will be fast at Indy

I know that every NASCAR fan will care about this weekend’s events, but I might be the only one who pays attention to the fast cars this weekend in prelude to the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

There’s a lot in common between the two tracks, lengthy straightaways, fast, flat corners (in fact, Turn 2—the “Tunnel Turn” at Pocono—is modeled after Indy’s 90 degree corners) and long green flag runs all make Pocono the perfect practical “test run” before NASCAR heads to Indianapolis in seven weeks.

But, is there anyone else that cares but me?

4. Pocono is one of two tracks left that isn’t owned by ISC or SMI. How long will it remain that way?

The George family owns the aforementioned Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and to suggest that one of NASCAR’s two track owning firms would even try to buy the speedway in Speedway is ludicrous.

However, many fans and media likenesses wonder how long it will be before the Mattoli family sells Pocono off. Unfortunately, if ISC or SMI bought Pocono, it would all but spell the end of the 2.5 mile triangle track in Pennsylvania. Many fans don’t like Pocono’s lengthy races, and still many feel that Pocono holds two too many boring races each year. I can guarantee that you’ll find someone this weekend that mentions Pocono’s boring characteristics, and wants to wipe the track off the face of the planet.

To them I say this: deal with it. Sure, it’d be nice to see just one of Pocono’s two races shortened 40 laps to a 400 miler, but Pocono is a decent track and the Mattoli family has done a great job promoting the sport in Pennsylvania. I’d love to make it up to the mountains one day to watch a race there. After all, it is a very similar track to Indy in many ways, and I’m pretty sure I’ve made my love for that facility evident both in the recent past and in the present.

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There’s only 51 days until the green drops at Indy for the Brickyard 400, and I’ll bounce around here over the next few weeks bringing in moments of fun and great memories of Indianapolis Motor Speedway before the real countdown begins. As for what that will contain, I’m not sure yet, but I’ll start to plan by the end of the month in order to give you guys something as good as last year. It should be fun.

I’m also planning on talking to Mark Simendinger, the Genreal Manager of Kentucky Speedway, Sunday evening before he goes on WCPO’s “Sports of All Sorts”. I’ll probably run a Kentucky Speedway blog post series later in the month.

Tonight I’ll be in Lawrenceburg with a WCPO camera guy to watch a little World of Outlaws action. More details to come, well, you’ll find out when.

Have a great Friday folks, I’ll talk to you soon.