NASCAR drivers are in for a bumpy ride at Pocono Raceway – USA TODAY
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USA TODAY Sports’ Jeff Gluck on what to watch for at Pocono Raceway.
LONG POND, Pa. — When drivers showed up at Pocono Raceway this week, the attention they paid to the tunnel under Turn 2 revolved around a new landscaping project that beautified the track’s main entrance.
Drivers noticed the multi-level waterfall outside the tunnel, the modern Pocono sign and the new boulder-covered ceiling of the tunnel that looked like something out of a Disney ride.
But they did not see a new feature of the track itself: A couple of large bumps – one almost a jump – above the tunnel.
In fact, no one noticed. Well, at least until drivers made their first lap of practice.
“The first time I went through there I was like, ‘Either our car is way off or something is wrong with the racetrack,’” Martin Truex Jr. said.
“I had no idea it was back there,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “Luckily I didn’t go through there with a whole lot of confidence in the first place, because that was wild.”
Pocono Raceway president Brandon Igdalsky said the bumps started to form a couple of years ago but became more pronounced due to an unusually harsh winter. He insisted the bumps had nothing to do with the tunnel renovation project; a deep frost layer shifted the dirt, he said.
“I’m putting 100% of it on the winter,” Igdalsky told a small group of reporters. “The fact there’s just not a lot of dirt to begin with between the track and the top of those tunnels and when the frost gets in there, that’s it.”
Not all the drivers seemed to believe the bumps were created solely because of the winter, however.
“There are literally speed bumps the size that you would put in grocery store parking lots up on top of the track,” pole winner Kurt Busch said. “Where did they come from? They had to have come from the underside where they were creating a beautiful fancy entry way.”
Officials were not aware of the Tunnel Turn bumps’ severity until this week, Igdalsky said, because they only drive over the turn in street cars – not Sprint Cup cars. They began to look into it after ARCA cars tested on Thursday and some drivers complained.
But by then it was too late to do anything.
“There’s nothing we could do this weekend that’s going to make it better for anybody that would be a viable option,” he said. “So come Monday morning, we’re already putting a plan together. When you guys get back, it won’t be there.”
The fix will come in time for the track’s August races – it will host both NASCAR and IndyCar that month – but drivers will simply have to deal with the issue during Sunday’s Axalta 400.
And that’s a concern for some. Joey Logano, for example, said he was worried “to the point that I’m nervous my car won’t make it through the race.”
“Our cars aren’t built to jump things,” he said. “They’re built to be on the ground, and that’s kind of where they work best. When your front tires come off the ground and they land and they’re moving, that just stresses all these parts and pieces out.
“We have everything built to the max of what our cars typically do, and this is a little bit more. So will cars break? Possibly.”
One problem is NASCAR’s elimination of the ride height rule, which means cars are positioned as low to the ground as possible. Many are practically scraping the track, sealed off in order not to let air underneath.
But when cars hit bumps – even eight or 10 inches tall – at 180 mph? Drivers feel like they suddenly off-roading.
And that, Earnhardt said, will require a fix.
“It will continue to get worse,” he said. “And I don’t think that we can get our race cars through there if it gets much worse than it is.”
That said, could the bumps – or jump – actually create a more interesting race? After all, restarts should be crazy if a car gets loose over the bumps with another driver right on the door.
“It did catch a lot of us by surprise,” Jeff Gordon said. “But I don’t know. It might make for a great race and add some unique challenge that we weren’t expecting.”
Carl Edwards said he wouldn’t mind having bumps all over the track because it “adds something” to the race.
“It could be one of those things where you might have an opportunity to take advantage of a guy’s trouble that he has through there,” he said. “To me, it’s OK to have that character. They’re on the big side, but that’s OK.
Said Earnhardt: “You like your tracks to have the character, but that is just a little bit extreme right there.”
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