This Weekend in NASCAR – Storylines: Pocono

• First Race: Pocono Organics CBD 325
• The Place: Pocono Raceway
• The Date: Saturday, June 26
• The Time: 3 p.m. ET
• TV: NBCSN, 2:30 p.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 325 miles (130 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 25), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 77), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 130)

• Second Race: Explore the Pocono Mountains 350
• The Place: Pocono Raceway
• The Date: Sunday, June 27
• The Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
• TV: NBCSN, 2:30 p.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 350 miles (140 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 30), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 85), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 140)

NASCAR prepares for a doubleheader weekend at Pocono Raceway

After the big success of last year’s doubleheader at Pocono Raceway, the NASCAR Cup Series is back for more as the series prepares for the Pocono Organics CBD 325 on Saturday, June 26 at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio followed by Sunday’s (June 28) Explore The Pocono Mountains 350 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Opened in 1968 as a three-quarter-mile track, Pocono Raceway held the first race on the 2.5-mile track in 1971. The first NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway was on August 4, 1974, and the event was won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty (Dodge, 115.593 mph).

The 2012 season marked the first year the NASCAR Cup Series races at Pocono were scheduled for 400 miles. Prior to 2012, all NASCAR Cup Series races were 500 miles at Pocono Raceway. In total, there have been 86 NASCAR Cup Series races at Pocono Raceway, one race from 1974 through 1981, and two per year since. Last year marked the first season the NASCAR Cup Series held a doubleheader weekend at Pocono Raceway.

Pocono Raceway’s 86 NASCAR Cup Series races have produced 46 different poles winners and 38 different race winners. NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott and veteran Ken Schrader lead the NASCAR Cup Series in poles at Pocono Raceway with five poles each.

The starting lineup for the first of the two Cup races this weekend was determined by Metric Qualifying and as a result Hendrick Motorsport’s driver Kyle Larson will start on the pole and his teammate William Byron will join him on the front row. Entry list and starting lineups for the second race of the weekend will be distributed following post-race inspection of the first race.

Starting Lineup Procedure For Race #2 at Pocono

Starting positions 1st -20th: The top 20 finishing vehicles from the 6/26/21 Pocono Raceway Event will have their final finishing positions inverted, regardless of laps completed, to be assigned their 6/27/21 starting position. The first-place vehicle from 6/26/21 will start 20th, the 2nd place vehicle will start 19th, and so on.

Starting Positions 21st – 40th: Vehicles finishing 21st –40th in the 6/26/21 Pocono Raceway Event will be assigned starting positions 21st – 40th in the same order as the final finishing results from 6/26/21 regardless of laps completed. The 21st place vehicle from 6/26/21 will start 21st, 22nd place vehicle will start 22nd, and so on.

Of Pocono Raceway’s 38 different NASCAR Cup Series winners, 10 are active this weekend. NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon (1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2011 and 2012) and Denny Hamlin (2006 sweep, 2009, 2010, 2019, 2020) lead the NASCAR Cup Series in wins at Pocono with six victories each. 

In last season’s Pocono doubleheader, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick grabbed the win in Race #1 and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin won the Race #2.  

Masters of the Tricky Triangle

If anyone is going to put an end to Kyle Larson’s wins streak this weekend its most likely going to be one of the 10 former NASCAR Cup Series Pocono Raceway winners entered this weekend, led by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin with six career Pocono victories.

Four drivers entered this weekend have multiple wins at the Tricky Triangle – Denny Hamlin (six wins), Kyle Busch (three), Kurt Busch (three) and Martin Truex Jr. (two). 

Recently, Joe Gibbs Racing has been the organization to beat at Pocono Raceway winning six of the last seven races at the 2.5-mile track, the one exception was Kevin Harvick’s win last season (Race 1 of 2) for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Series standings leader Denny Hamlin is still looking for his first victory of the season, currently riding a winless streak that dates back 22 races to Talladega last October. Though Hamlin has been winless this season, he has posted nine top fives and 12 top 10s. Pocono Raceway is statically Hamlin’s best track on the Cup schedule. In 30 starts, the Chesterfield, Virginia native has posted six wins (tied for series-most with Jeff Gordon), 13 top fives and 20 top 10s. He also has the third-best average finish among active drivers at the track with a 11.2.

Hamlin’s JGR teammate, Kyle Busch is tied with his brother Kurt Busch for the second-most wins by an active driver at Pocono with three victories each. Kyle Busch will be one to watch this weekend, he has built some momentum lately posting five top 10s in the last seven races; including a win at Kansas and two third-place finishes (Darlington and Charlotte). Busch has made 32 starts at Pocono Raceway posting three wins (2017, 2018, 2019), nine top fives and 16 top 10s. Last season’s doubleheader was a mixed bag for Busch. In the first race he posted a fifth-place finish but was caught in an incident in the second race and finished 38th.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. has two NASCAR Cup Series wins at Pocono Raceway and is looking get his third or maybe even fourth in this weekend’s doubleheader. Truex’s 2021 season was off to feverish pace at the beginning of the year winning three races (Phoenix, Martinsville, Darlington) in the first 12 events, but has since hit a skid, posting just one top-five finish in the last five races. With that said, Pocono could be the perfect track to right the No. 19 team’s ship. Truex has made 30 series starts at the Tricky Triangle posting two wins (2015, 2018), six top fives and 13 top 10s. In last season’s doubleheader at Pocono Truex posted back-to-back top 10s.     

• Next Race: Pocono Green 225 Recycled by J.P. Mascaro & Sons
• The Place: Pocono Raceway
• The Date: Sunday, June 27
• The Time: 12 p.m. ET
• TV: NBCSN, 12 p.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 225 miles (90 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 20), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 40), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 90)

Sunday Showdown at Pocono Raceway

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will kick off a Sunday doubleheader with the NASCAR Cup Series on June 27 at Pocono Raceway with the Pocono Green 225 Recycled by J.P. Mascaro & Sons at 12 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Last weekend, the Xfinity Series took on Nashville Superspeedway for the first time since 2011 and Kyle Busch was victorious for the second week in a row in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The win also gave Busch his 100th career Xfinity victory – making him just the third driver in NASCAR history to win 100 or more races in a single series.

Justin Allgaier finished runner-up to Busch and Harrison Burton finished third. Josh Berry finished fourth, AJ Allmendinger fifth, Brandon Jones sixth, Jeb Burton seventh, Noah Gragson eighth, Austin Hill ninth and Riley Herbst rounded out the top 10. The race saw eight cautions for 46 laps with 12 lead changes and a margin of victory of 1.110 seconds.

This weekend the series prepares for Pocono Raceway and by virtue of Metric Qualifying Harrison Burton will lead the field to the green flag with Justin Allgaier joining him on the front row.

Century mark for Rowdy helps others

Kyle Busch picked up his 100th career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with his overtime victory at Nashville Superspeedway last weekend. This made him the first driver in Xfinity Series history to reach wins in the triple digits and the third driver in NASCAR national series history to earn 100 or more wins in one series. NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty (200), David Pearson (105) have also accomplished the achievement. To celebrate Busch’s 100 wins in the Xfinity Series, Comcast donated 100 laptops and a year of free Internet Essentials to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee, which is also a Comcast Lift Zone.

Since September 2020, Comcast has been rolling out Life Zones as part of their ongoing effort to provide Wi-Fi to more than 1,000 community center across America by the end of 2021.

• Next Race: CRC Brakleen 105
• The Place: Pocono Raceway
• The Date: Saturday, June 26
• The Time: 12 p.m. ET
• TV: FS1, 11 a.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 150 miles (60 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 15), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 30), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 60)

What Turn 4? Pocono Raceway poses unique challenge

When it comes to racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series no track is more unique than the 2.5-mile, paved, three-turn Pocono Raceway aptly nicknamed the ‘Tricky Triangle’.  This weekend the series heads to Pennsylvania for the CRC Brakleen 150 on Saturday, June 26 at 12 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Pocono Raceway has hosted 11 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. The first Camping World Truck race at Pocono Raceway was on July 31, 2010, and the event was won from the pole by Elliott Sadler in a Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet.

The 11 Truck Series races at Pocono Raceway have produced eight different poles winners and 11 different race winners. With three of the Truck Series races having their qualifying sessions cancelled, the series lead in poles is shared among the eight different drivers with a pole – Elliott Sadler (2010), Kevin Harvick (2011), Nelson Piquet Jr. (2012), Kyle Larson (2014), Erik Jones (2015), Ben Rhodes (2017), Kyle Busch (2018) and Austin Hill (2019) – the 2013 and 2016 season races had qualifying cancelled due to weather and last season’s starting lineup was determined by random draw due to the restrictions brought on by the pandemic.

Kyle Busch Motorsport’s Kyle Busch leads the series in wins at Pocono Raceway with two victories (2015, 2018). Busch is also the only driver entered this weekend at Pocono Raceway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.

This weekend’s starting lineup was determined by Metric Qualifying and as a result Front Row Motorsport’s Todd Gilliland will start from the pole and GMS Racing’s Zane Smith will join him on the front row.

Kyle Busch Motorsports stacks lineup for Pocono

After already claiming seven of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series 12 races this season, Kyle Busch Motorsports has brought back their namesake owner/driver Kyle Busch to compete alongside the series driver standings leader John Hunter Nemechek and rookie Chandler Smith.

Kyle Busch Motorsports leads the series in wins at Pocono Raceway with five victories – Kyle Busch (2015, 2018), William Byron (2016), Christopher Bell (2017) and Brandon Jones (2020). And Busch leads the series in wins at 2.5-mile track with wo victories and is the only driver to win at Pocono in all three NASCAR national series.

Busch’s teammate and current driver standings leader, John Hunter Nemechek has yet to win at Pocono but has made three starts posting one top five and two top 10s. He also has the fifth best average finish (8.7) among active drivers at Pocono.

“The trickiest part of the Tricky Triangle is getting your truck to handle in all three corners,” said Nemechek. “What Turn 4? There is no Turn 4 there. Turn 1 is completely different from Turn 2 and Turn 2 is completely different from Turn 3 and Turn 3 completely different from Turn 1. There are a lot of differences, but you have to make your truck go around the racetrack and handle in all three in order for it to be fast. There are a lot of handling characteristics this weekend. There is a lot a driver can do as well in trying to manipulate what the truck can do handling wise trying to get speed out of it, especially for the long run.”

Nemechek and Busch will be joined by Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate, Chandler Smith, who will be making his series track debut this weekend at Pocono.

source – NASCAR communications