(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 August.
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 .
Outside of the NASCAR races, Pocono is used throughout the year by sports car and motorcycle clubs as well as racing schools. The triangular 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.
See Also: Pocono 500 (Indycar)
From 1971 to 1989, the
United States Auto Club and the
CART IndyCar World Series (now the
Champ Car World 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.
From , the Race of Champions was moved to
Flemington Raceway .
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Pocono Raceway has a unique design. Each turn is modeled after turns at 3 different tracks. Turn One (14 degree banking) was modeled after the now defunct
Trenton Speedway , Turn Two (sometimes referred to as "The Tunnel Turn") is like
Indianapolis Motor Speedway (8 degree banking), and Turn 3 (6 degree banking) 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 the three turns are not identical, nor are any of the three straights identical in length. The long frontstretch often requires a gear change due to the high
RPM s 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 Plate s are not needed here. For its unique characteristics, Pocono is sometimes referred to as a
Roval . Others refer to Pocono as a modified road course due to the use of shifting gears to handle the range between the slowest curve and the fastest straightaway.
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.
- wins the inaugural Pocono 500.
- blows a tire with two laps to go.
- knocked the late Dale Earnhardt out of his way to score his second career Winston Cup win.
- and Dale Earnhardt Jr. became entangled exiting turn one, and both cars slam into the inside wall, causing Park's vehicle to go airborne over the hood of Earnhardt's 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.
- is installed in all the turns.
- sweeps both races at Pocono
Many fans and drivers contend that the 500-mile races at Pocono take too long, and several Nextel Cup drivers recently admitted on FOX that Pocono was the least exciting track on the circuit, including series.
