Pocono Raceway, site of this Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race, isn’t called the Tricky Triangle for nothing. No other track on the Cup circuit has such a challenging layout — road/street courses not included.
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Pocono has three turns that are all diametrically different from the other turns. When Pocono opened in 1971, the 2.5-mile track was designed to provide a unique layout that was part superspeedway and part road course.
It’s bad enough that the track gives drivers fits as they have to come up with unique lines in each radically different turn.
But it’s Cup crew chiefs that actually may have a harder job than their man behind the wheel because suspension setups have to take into account the three different corners. In most other ovals or tri-ovals, the turns are relatively the same, making setups easy to do as they’re fairly equal and similar.
But not Pocono, nope, no way.
That’s why crew chiefs — especially those whose drivers wind up reaching victory lane — often talk about how they must “compromise” when designing setups for Pocono and the 400-mile jaunt (it was 500 miles until 2011 before NASCAR scaled back the distance by 20 percent).
Ryan Blaney has had good success at Pocono, with two wins (and 7 top 10 finishes in 15 career starts) there, including his first career Cup win in 2017 while driving for the Wood Brothers, and again last year for Team Penske.
Currently ranked seventh in the Cup standings, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang comes into Sunday’s race at Pocono already locked into the upcoming NASCAR Cup playoffs by virtue of his win a few weeks ago at Nashville Superspeedway.
How Blaney Attacks Pocono’s Three Unique Turns
Blaney appeared on this week’s edition of the Rubbin Is Racing podcast and broke down how he attacks Pocono and whether he thinks he can earn his third career win there this Sunday.
“Turn 1 is banked, more of a traditional corner,” Blaney said. “After this incredibly long runway of a straightaway, then (it’s) the tunnel turn, Turn 2, (which is) like this sharp little kink that you can’t take flat, you can’t take wide open. It’s really rough, really bumpy, hard to get over.
“And then Turn 3 is this really, really flat long gradual corner that leads onto that big frontstretch.”
The challenges Pocono presents to his crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, isn’t lost on Blaney.
“To get your car handling decent in all three (turns) is really tough,” Blaney concedes. “I’ve always related it to like a compromising racetrack, like you’re compromising what turns do I want to be good in?
“I always try to pick two (turns), to be good in Turn 1 and Turn 3 and I just try to live over the tunnel (Turn 2) because I think that’s where you’re going to make the most time is those two corners.
“If I can just survive over that tunnel turn, I feel like I’m going to have a decent shot (Sunday). So hopefully we can do it again,” he concluded.
