After the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series made their first foreign foray in over six decades, this constellation of racers head back to the states for a 400-mile journey that’ll be far from a Great American Getaway.
Instead of enjoying the honeymoon with Mexico, NASCAR decided to take the field up to the northeast for a trip of tricky proportions.
Pocono Raceway offers just three turns, giving it a distinctive triangle shape. Thankfully, this triangle remains scalene, so competitors have to maneuver three different straightaways and crucially, three different turns.
Even if a driver’s car works well in turn 1, there’s no guarantee it works well in turns 2 & 3. Not only that, fuel mileage often rises to the forefront as a topic of conversation around this 2.5-mile behemoth, so drivers will be forced to manage their equipment and their tempers to make it to the finish today.
On top of everything I just told you, 32 of the field’s best look to solidify their seeding for the inaugural in-season tournament that starts next week, which means a great finish today could set them up with a great matchup going into next week’s race in Atlanta.
Today will be a true test of speed, bravery, and mental maturity. Who will solve the Tricky Triangle? Don’t be obtuse, it’ll be the driver and team that gets the angle right.
Last Week in Mexico City…
Shane van Gisbergen took the pole for last week’s Viva Mexico 250 and led the field to green before rain hit the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit before one lap could be completed.
The weather marred the first half of the event, allowing SVG and Ty Gibbs to scamper away in the first two stages, but when the weather and the chaos it brought with it subsided, it was all Shane van Gisbergen, collecting his second career Cup Series victory. For a more detailed review, check out Madelyn’s recap.
This Week in NASCAR
Another chapter in the NASCAR antitrust lawsuit was logged this past week as the teams — consisting of 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports — went to the courtroom to argue away NASCAR’s counterclaim.
While there were some questions of whether or not the remaining chartered teams in the Cup Series should be involved in the case, Tuesday’s case ruled that this step would not be necessary.
As for the teams fighting in this case, their attorney Jeffrey Kessler spoke with Bob Pockrass on Tuesday to lay out possible outcomes of this antitrust suit:
For a detailed theory on how this case could pan out if NASCAR loses, here’s my article from earlier this year.
The teams are also looking to fight for a rehearing with the U.S. Appeals Court fourth circuit to maintain their charter status. Here’s Jeffrey Kessler’s statement after they successfully filed their petition on Friday:
Something that trickled out of the Mexico City race weekend was controversy centering around Carson Hocevar both on and off the track.
During Sunday’s race, the second-year Cup racer got into Ricky Stenhouse Jr. again for the second time in three weeks, prompting Stenhouse to come to the 77 car after the race and declare that he will handle this issue when the teams return to the States.
Not long after the race was completed, comments made by Hocevar on a livestream leading up the Mexico City race saw him disparage the city and the country.
On Sunday evening, Hocevar took to Twitter to apologize for his ignorance:
After Spire Motorsports fined him $50,000 for the comments, Hocevar doubled down on his apology and further expressed his dismay at his comments and the reaction from certain race fans about his fine:
On the morning of the Chicago street course, three drivers will pilot the NASCAR electric vehicles: David Ragan in the Ford, Rajah Caruth in the Chevy, and Brent Crews behind the wheel of a non-specific NASCAR-branded vehicle.
Some drivers from the Australian Supercars series will be making waves Stateside as Cam Waters announced that he will pilot the No. 66 truck for ThorSport Racing at Lime Rock next month. He joins defending Supercars champion Will Brown as he intends to enter the Chicago street course race with Kaulig in Cup.
In the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, a late-race restart opened up a big can of controversy as the dominant truck of Corey Heim lost a tire prior to the race going back green on the final restart, forcing him to come down pit road and not getting a chance to contend for the win.
Not only that, Heim peeling off allowed Carson Hocevar to take the front row, but NASCAR penalized him for a restart violation because he beat the leader to the start-finish line. That leader was Layne Riggs.
After a campaign shrouded in incidents with high-caliber drivers like Hocevar and Heim, Riggs cruised to a drama-free victory at Pocono on Friday evening.
As for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, a couple of friends got to duke it out for the victory around the Tricky Triangle. When Justin Allgaier and Chase Elliott got together on a late restart, it cleared the way for a battle between RCR’s Jesse Love and JRM’s Connor Zilisch.
Zilisch came into the day as the crowd favorite since his car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. got to be his crew chief this weekend due to Marty Lindley’s suspension.
In the end, Zilisch sailed by Love heading into turn 1 with a handful of laps to go and scooted away to earn his third career Xfinity Series victory and his first on an oval.
Jey and I dropped our newest edition of NASCAR Cup Series power rankings today, so if you’d like to see which drivers we think are the 10 best in the sport, you can check that out here.
As for Cup Series qualifying, Denny Hamlin asserted himself as the main title threat this week by putting his No. 11 Progressive Toyota on the pole at Pocono. For full qualifying results, click here.
The Race
Today’s Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video with Adam Alexander, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Steve Letarte in the booth.
This 400-mile race will cover 160 laps across this 2.5-mile speedway. Those 160 laps will be split into three stages ending on the following laps: 30-95-160.
As for the average race at the Tricky Triangle, it looks something like this: 7 cautions for 29 caution laps, 14 lead changes, and an average duration of 2 hours and 53 minutes.
If you’re not a fan of overtime, you might be a fan of today’s race as there have only been two instances of overtime in the past 13 race weekends. The lap that the final caution flies over those last 13 races tends to be around lap 136, or with 25 laps remaining.
Writer’s Pick
Trying to hop on the momentum he garnered from winning the Xfinity Series race the day before, I selected Daniel Suárez to win last week’s race in his home country, but a trying day left him outside the top-15.
This week, I’m going with what I consider to be the strongest bet I can: Denny Hamlin.
Picking Hamlin at Pocono is much like picking Jimmie Johnson at Dover and Kevin Harvick at Phoenix: it’s practically a lock that they will contend at the very least.
Hamlin is the all-time winner at Pocono, which he certified with his seventh win at the track in 2023. This was after his record-breaking win from the year before was removed due to a disqualification. If you’d like to read more about what I think of disqualifications in NASCAR, check out my latest piece from GRID Network.
Hamlin took the pole by a commanding margin yesterday, and I have no doubt he will be fighting for the checkered flag today, especially after a week of rest given his sabbatical in Mexico. It would be a great way to usher in his newest child into the world.
(Top Photo Credit: Derik Hamilton/AP Photo)
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