Pocono Raceway

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Pocono Raceway

Location	Long Pond, Pennsylvania
Track length	2.5 miles (4 kilometres)
Track shape	Triangle
Banking	Turn 1 - 14° Turn 2 - 8° Turn 3 - 6°
Major events	NASCAR Nextel Cup
Capacity	76,812
Address	P.O. Box 500, Long Pond, PA 18334
Owner	Mattoli family

Pocono Raceway (formerly Pocono International Raceway) is a superspeedway located in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania at Long Pond. It is the site of two annual NASCAR Nextel Cup races held just weeks apart in June and July.

Victory Lane at Pocono during pre-race ceremonies at the 2005 Pocono 500

Many fans and drivers contend that the 500-mile races at Pocono take too long, and that they would like to see them shortened to 400 miles.[1] Some fans would not mind seeing the track disappear from the schedule altogether, or at least reduced to one race.^{[citation needed]} Others have called for a Busch Series or Craftsman Truck Series support race to be held at Pocono, since it is one of only two Nextel Cup oval tracks (along with Indianapolis) that is not on either the Busch or Craftsman Truck schedule. The only support event at Pocono is the ARCA series.

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 owned by the Mattioli family, which also owns South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Virginia, and administers the Music City Motorplex in Nashville, Tennessee.

Outside of the NASCAR races, Pocono is used throughout the year by sports car and motorcycle clubs as well as racing schools. The tri-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. This is the typical configuration for the Formula USA (FUSA) motorcycle race that is run on the track.

[edit] History

From 1971 to 1989, the CART series held a 500-mile race at Pocono. In 1989, Emerson Fittipaldi set a qualifying track record of 211.715 mph. However, after the 1989 race, the track was criticized for its roughness and lack of safety features, and was removed from the CART schedule.

It has been heavily rumored that Bruton Smith, the owner of Speedway Motorsports Inc., is attempting to purchase Pocono Raceway. He would do so to obtain a second race for Las Vegas Motor Speedway.^{[citation needed]}

In 2000, Jeremy Mayfield knocked the late Dale Earnhardt out of the way to score his second career Winston Cup win.

2002: Steve Park and Dale Earnhardt Jr. become entangled exiting turn one, and both cars slam into the inside wall, causing Park's no. 1 Pennzoil Chevy to go airborne over the hood of Earnhardt's no. 8 car and barrel roll. The incident resulted in a lengthy red flag to repair the old fashioned highway barrier that lined the inside of the track in that area. Soon afterward, all outdated barriers at the track were replaced with sturdier walls. SAFER barriers now line the outside walls of the track also.

Prior to the installation of the SAFER barrier in 2004, the track's walls were made of boilerplate steel. Occasionally cars would punch holes into the wall. This caused a red flag period until a new section of boilerplate could be welded into place.

On September 18, 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio personality Robin Quivers began racing lessons at Pocono in preparation for a race against fellow Sirius personality and sprint car driver Bubba the Love Sponge. It was reported by Howard 100 News that Quivers achieved speeds of upwards of 150 mph.

[edit] The track

Pocono Raceway has a unique design. Each turn is modeled after turns at 3 different tracks. Turn One was modeled after the now defunct Trenton Speedway, Turn Two is like Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Turn 3 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 none of the three turns are identical, nor are any of the three straights identical in length. The long frontstrech often requires a gear change due to the high RPMs attained. 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 tends to make the overall speeds much lower than at other tracks of similar lengths thus restrictor plates are not needed here.

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

[edit] Current Races

• NASCAR Nextel Cup - Pocono 500
• NASCAR Nextel Cup - Pennsylvania 500
• ARCA RE/MAX Series - Pocono 200
• ARCA RE/MAX Series - Pennsylvania 200

[edit] Records

• NASCAR Qualifying: Kasey Kahne 172.533 mph (277.665 km/h), 2004
• NASCAR Race: Rusty Wallace, 144.892 mph (233.181 km/h), July 21, 1996
• CART Qualifying: Emerson Fittipaldi, 211.715 mph, 1989
• CART Race: Danny Sullivan, 170.720 mph, 1989

[edit] See also

• List of NASCAR race tracks

[edit] External links

• Pocono Raceway Official Site
• Pocono Raceway Page on NASCAR.com
• Trackpedia guide to driving this track
• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 41.05539° -75.51152°
  • WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia
  • Street map from MapQuest or Google Local
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
  • Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth