Pocono Raceway Tag

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Martin Truex Jr.’s hopes to return to Victory Lane at Pocono Raceway evaporated in the early stages of the Pennsylvania 400. The polesitter’s No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota hit the wall on lap 20, moments after a restart following the competition caution. After leading the opening 16 laps, Truex’s right front tire went flat due to a lug nut during the scheduled pit stop cutting off the valve stem for the inner liner. “Just blew a right front (tire),” said Truex. “A lug nut bouncedRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa. – Saturday’s Pocono Mountains 150 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Pocono Raceway featured no Sprint Cup drivers in the field. Then again, the race didn’t need any representation from NASCAR’s top division, as dominant as William Byron was. The 18-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., led 44 of 60 laps in the No. 9 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota in a caution-filled event and pulled away to beat runner-up Cameron Haley to the finish line by a comfortable 1.407 seconds. The victoryRead More

By: Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa. – Martin Truex Jr. found a lot more than light at the end of the Tunnel on Friday afternoon at Pocono Raceway. Gaining time on the rest of the field through Turn 2—the Tunnel Turn—at the 2.5-mile triangular race track, Truex put his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota on the pole for Sunday’s Pennsylvania 400 (on NBCSN at 1:30 p.m. ET), knocking fellow Toyota Camry driver Carl Edwards out of the top starting spot. It’s not that Truex and hisRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor When Jeff Gordon was announced as the interim driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet, the press release stated that Gordon would drive at Indianapolis and Pocono. As Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues to heal from concussion-like symptoms, an injury with no definitive timetable, questions have arose about whether Earnhardt will be cleared to race in Watkins Glen next week. Gordon, can’t speak on Earnhardt’s health, but he did confirm on Friday that he will stay in the No. 88 car longer than Pocono if that’s whatRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer The last time the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series visited Pocono Raceway, Kyle Busch took home the victory in dominating fashion, beating Kevin Harvick by over a second. Tyler Reddick was the highest finishing Truck Series regular in third. The last time a contender for the Truck Series Championship took home the victory in Pocono was in 2013 when Ryan Blaney captured the checkered flag. There are no NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers entered in this weekend’s race, nor are any past Pocono winners entered.Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Throughout the history of NASCAR, there have been stories of drivers continuing to race even while injured, never giving up the pursuit of victory lane. In 2011 at Pocono, Brad Keselowski added his name to that list. For that reason, the 2011 Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono is the focus of this week’s “Throwback Thursday Theater.” The week prior to NASCAR’s second trip of the season to Pocono, Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 team, along with Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 team and Dale Earnhardt,Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Stories about top-tier drivers getting a new crew chief are usually explosive news, but when Richard Childress Racing announced that Paul Menard would have a new crew chief starting this weekend in Pocono, there wasn’t much fanfare. However, I think bringing Danny Stockman Jr. over to turn the wrenches on the No. 27 Chevrolet SS was a smart decision. Not to take anything away from Menard’s former crew chief Justin Alexander, but Stockman has quietly become one of the brightest development crew chiefs in theRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor The news we expected came down Wednesday. Hendrick Motorsports announced that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will miss at least the next two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races while he continues to recover from concussion-like symptoms. This will undoubtedly drop Earnhardt from Chase contention, and upon his return, Earnhardt will have to hope for a health waiver from NASCAR (which should be awarded) at which point he will then have to win a race before the end of the regular season if he wants to Chase hisRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Since his runner-up finish at Bristol back in April, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had been having a rough go of things in the five races that followed, failing to finish inside the top-10 in any of them, but on Monday at Pocono, Earnhardt returned to form at a track that he has had good luck at in the past. Starting eighth, Earnhardt struggled early in the race as it looked like Monday’s race might just be a continuation of their performance issues that they had beenRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Pocono’s tricky layout is notorious for giving rookies in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series a hard time, but for the stellar rookie class of 2016, Sunday’s Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono was a walk in the park. In this week’s “Rookie Report”, we’ll recap just how well the rookies did at the “Tricky Triangle”. Chase Elliott has been the class of the rookie field for much of 2016 and his first career trip to Pocono was one of his best showings of theRead More