Coming off the momentum of a landmark international event in Mexico City, NASCAR now shifts its focus toward the highlands of Pennsylvania for the 92nd running of a Cup Series showdown at Pocono Raceway. The 2.5-mile “Tricky Triangle” will stage an important weekend across all three national series as the regular-season finish line looms closer. And this time around, the stakes are notably higher.
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According to Fox Sports, the upcoming Great American Getaway 400 will boast a total purse of $11,055,250, a significant leap from last year’s $7,776,907, marking an increase of $3,278,343. This total encompasses payouts for finishing orders, historical performance metrics, and year-end championship contributions.
Then, the Xfinity Series will see some increase in its share, with the 2025 purse set at $1,651,939, up from the previous season’s $1,439,558. The Craftsman Truck Series remains the most modest of the trio, distributing $782,900 in total prize money, receiving just a marginal bump from last year’s $757,128.
Purses for Pocono weekend, including all payouts, all positions, all contingency awards, contribution to year-end points fund, etc, plus all charter payouts for Cup:
Cup: $11,055,250
Xfinity: $1,651,939
Truck: $782,900
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 18, 2025
But the money won’t come easily. Pocono’s daunting three-turn layout remains one of the toughest nuts to crack on the calendar. Each corner draws from a different discipline, with varying degrees of banking and radius, demanding absolute precision. Add to that the longest frontstretch straightaway in NASCAR, stretching 3,740 feet, and drivers are in for a battle of attrition and nerve if they hope to cash in.
Drivers to look out for at Pocono Raceway
Though Denny Hamlin sat out NASCAR’s first international race in over five decades, snapping a 406-race streak of consecutive starts, he returns to Pocono Raceway as the clear-cut favorite. With seven career wins at the tri-oval — more than any other driver in Cup Series history — Hamlin stands alone as the only repeat winner across the last eight races at the venue, having taken three of them.
Kyle Busch, a four-time Pocono winner over the past decade, last visited Victory Lane there in 2021, prior to the arrival of the Next Gen car. Yet, fans still yearn to see “Rowdy” return to form and tame the track’s unforgiving geometry once more.
Defending Pocono winner Ryan Blaney also enters the fray with momentum. His 2024 win broke a 22-race drought for Team Penske at the Pennsylvania circuit dating back to 2011. That win came in a race with only 24 cars finishing, marking the lowest number of finishers at Pocono since June 1993.
This year, however, Kyle Larson looms large with a series-best nine top-five finishes. Teammates William Byron and Christopher Bell, along with Hamlin, trail closely with seven each. With three wins already in the bag, Larson has every reason to believe a fourth could come at Pocono.
