(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)
Pocono is a track that most Sprint Cup drivers aren’t really too thrilled to race. The races there are generally too long for the venue, a some drivers think that the track is dangerous. However, the history and the design of the track has a uniqueness.
This weekend the Camping World Truck Series makes its debut at the 2.5 mile triangular race track in the Pocono mountains of PA.
Despite the Sprint Cup drivers lashing out about about track, there are several Sprint Cup drivers lining up to do “double duty” this weekend at Pocono.
Like Denny Hamlin, who will drive a Billy Ballew Motorsports entry.
“Billy Ballew has always been really good to me and we’ve had a few good runs together in the truck series,” Hamlin said. “I only run about one truck race a year and this year I chose Pocono. I can’t wait to get there.”
Also doing double duty will be Kasey Kahne. He’ll be driving for the Kyle Busch-owned team.
“Kyle and I had been talking about it for a while and I told him I was interested in running a truck race or two for KBM this year,” Kahne said. “He had another obligation with the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday, so he asked if I could race his truck. It’s a great opportunity for me to come back to the series and compete with really good equipment. I’ve watched Kyle put the team together and it’s really been impressive how well they’ve done this year as a first-year team.”
Adding to the allure of the Pocono Mountains 150 is its length. It will be just 50 laps. Nobody was complaining about that this week.
It’s a 50 lap shootout!
Another new innovative feature will debut with the truck race this weekend, a multi-truck qualifying system. The trucks will be qualifying in the reverse order of their practice speeds, instead of drawing a numbered pill. The trucks will be released from pit road at 25 second increments for their two lap qualifying attempt. As always, the fastest of the two laps will count as their qualifying speed.
This new innovative qualifying system might prove to be quite exciting. What do you think?
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
