Pocono Raceway is classified as an oval, but really it is anything but. A glance at the 2.5-mile track’s layout clearly shows it is a giant triangle featuring three distinct corners.
When designed back in the late 1960s, Pocono incorporated parts of three other classic tracks whose histories date back to before World War I. Turn 1 is patterned off the first corner of the now-defunct Trenton (N.J.) Speedway; Turn 2 replicates that at Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Turn 3 was modeled after the Milwaukee Mile.
The uniqueness of three distinct turns makes Pocono unlike any other track, part high-speed oval — speeds flirt with 200 mph heading into Turn 1 — part road course, as drivers shift at various points and rely on heavy braking to navigate the corners. The track is bestowed appropriately with the nickname, “Tricky Triangle.”
And as if an already challenging track needed another wrinkle, Pocono’s famed “tunnel turn” (so called because it runs over the entrance to the infield) in Turn 2 has developed bumps, so sizeable they shake man and machine alike.
“I’ve still got a headache,” said a laughing Joey Logano Friday. “It’s unbelievable. It’s brutal. It’s a big, big jump. The front tires are completely off the racetrack, so obviously that’s hard inside the racecar to figure out how to get over that for the driver.”
For years Pocono was regarded as one of the coarsest tracks on the Sprint Cup Series calendar until a 2012 re-pave. But the bumps in Turn 2 began reappearing last season, according to Dale Earnhardt Jr. And a harsh winter that hammered Eastern Pennsylvania only compounded the problem.
Pole-sitter Kurt Busch said the tunnel turn reminds him of speed bumps in a grocery store parking lot, while Logano quipped rallycross star Travis Pastrana should make a return to NASCAR because he’d perform quite well in Sunday’s Axalta 400.
“Pocono is always a compromise because there are three different corners, but it’s a little bit more different than normal because of the jump,” Logano said. “Everyone might be calling it bumps, but I think it’s big enough to call it a jump. It’s tough.”
Because the severity of the bumps didn’t come to the attention of track officials until this weekend, little can be done to immediately smooth out the surface. Earnhardt, who called going over the bumps “pretty wild,” said he had talked with Pocono president Brandon Igdalsky and the plan is to correct the issue before the speedway hosts its second NASCAR weekend in August.
In the meantime, however, drivers will just have to cope.
“I feel like that they understand that while we can get through this weekend with what is back there right now, it is probably not in their best interest to leave it as is,” Earnhardt said. “Because it will continue to get worse and I don’t think that we can get our racecars through there if it gets much worse than it is.
“There is a line between character and just a bad racetrack. This is getting close to that line. I definitely like a bump or two in the corner. I love that stuff. You like your tracks to have the character, but that is just a little bit extreme right there.”
NASCAR Pocono Coverage
NASCAR Pocono Coverage
Opinions differ whether the bumps will play a factor in the outcome. Logano and Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski are convinced the constant jarring through Turn 2 will produce a greater number of equipment failures, and that Sunday will evolve into an old-school race with numerous drivers suffering broken suspension parts that will cripple their efforts.
“I’m nervous my car won’t make it through the race because our cars aren’t built to jump things,” Logano said. “When your front tires come off the ground and they land and they’re moving, that just stresses all these parts and pieces out.”
Others think the attrition rate won’t be any more or less, but will instead change the form of racing.
What’s certain is running side-by-side through Turn 2 is unlikely following double-file restarts. The risk is too great, as even without the roughness, Pocono’s second corner is hazardous with Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin each spinning out Friday. Stewart collided nose-first into the inside wall and had to convert to a backup car, while Hamlin escaped without damage.
“I was already past the bump,” Stewart said. “I got loose on the exit of it and couldn’t catch it — driver error.”
What Turn 2 may do is create more passing opportunities. If that occurs it would be a welcome change in a year during which passing has been sorely lacking due to aerodynamic rule changes NASCAR enacted over the offseason.
“It’s going to make it an interesting race, for sure,” Jeff Gordon said. “It seems like at speed, you can get through there pretty good. But if you were inside of a car or something like that, it’s really going to get your attention. It might make for a great race and add some unique challenge that we weren’t expecting.”
