Track history

Pocono Raceway is a very demanding track not only on the drivers, but on the equipment as well. It is a 2.5-mile triangular oval with different length straightaways and different banking in the three turns. The front stretch is 3,740 feet where the cars are going 200 mph into a tight 14-degree banked first turn. The backstretch is 3,055 feet leading into an 8 degree sweeping turn 2. The short straight is 1,780 feet running into a tight 6 degree turn 3. The track has been described as "the superspeedway that drives like a road course". The facility was built in 1968 as a three-quarter mile raceway and was expanded to its current 2.5-mile configuration in the early 1970's.
First Cup race

The first 500-mile NASCAR race, the Purolator 500, was held on August 4, 1974. With a 144.122 mph lap in the Bud Moore No. 15 Ford, Buddy Baker qualified on the pole to lead the 35-car field. He led 11 laps and finished 2nd. Richard Petty started his No. 43 STP Dodge 3rd on the grid, led 152 laps and took the win in the rain-shortened (480 miles) inaugural event. Petty earned $17,000 for the win.


As fantasy players, your team budget won’t allow you to pick all track favorites so Mid-pack Attack is here to help. A mid-packer may not win the race but has as good a shot at a top 15 finish as Pocono favorites Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle. There were 48 cars on the entry list for this weekend’s Cup race. The 43 drivers who qualified will be competing in front of 100,000 fans in the grandstands for a total purse of $4,936,658. Here are our picks for Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.



Mid-pack picks

Brian Vickers has the best average start (4.6) at Pocono of all current drivers with at least 5 starts. A 9.4 average finish is not bad either. He and teammate, Jimmie Johnson, are the only drivers (more than one start) who have completed 100 % of the laps in their Pocono races. He’s led 14 % of his laps run at this track. In the June race, Vickers caught a pit road speeding penalty half-way into the event and fought back to a fourth place finish.

Bobby Labonte, a 3-time Pocono winner, started the 2005 Pocono 500 7th on the grid, fought an ill-handling car most of the race and ended up hard in the wall with only two laps to go. He came back in July for the Pennsylvania 500 and scored an 8th place finish. This past June, he drove a consistent race and finished 12th. Labonte usually does well at the Long Pond track and should have another top 10 or 15 finish this weekend.

Our rookie pick this week is Clint Bowyer. While a finish of 21st in the June race may not sound impressive, he did it from a 42nd starting spot. We like his recent numbers. Bowyer has averaged a 15.5 finish in the last four Cup races and that includes his 27th at Loudon last week. It would have been better if he didn’t get tagged and put into the wall with three laps to go.

For our deepest pick this week we’ll go with Elliott Sadler. He’s struggled lately but a lot had to do with the uncertainty of his future at Robert Yates Racing. RYR just released him from his contract at the end of 2006. With that load off his shoulders, Sadler can get back to racing. He did average a 14.7 finish in his seven Pocono starts with RYR so a top 15 is not out of the question.