nascar 2012 - race 14

The Tricky Triangle

LONG POND, PENNSYLVANIA - The Sprint Cup Series ran their first of two races on the Tricky Triangle this weekend. This would be the first of six races for TNT television station. The “Summer Series” is the section of races that are run on TNT. The race has 160 laps, and a pit road speed of 55 mph. The racing surface for Pocono has been replaced with new asphalt, creating much higher speeds than these drivers have seen in the past. Turn one has fourteen degree banking, while turn two has eight degrees and turn three has six degrees. The Pole Sitter is # 20 Joey Lagono, with # 99 Carl Edwards starting second.

One thing this weekends race was missing, was # 51 Kurt Busch, who was suspended for telling it the way it is, to a reporter. NASCAR felt that he violated his already probation, when he verbally abused the reporter. The reporter was in the wrong, when he tried to create more of an issue than Busch had with another driver. Busch simply told him to put a sock in it, and quit trying to start more issues. NASCAR also took a minute to observe the passing of two well known names in the sport. Joseph “DOC” Mattioli and the 2013 Hall Of Fame Inductee Cotton Owens. The Grand Marshal for the race was Vanilla Ice. A fly-over by the local Langley Air Force Base with their T-38’s was done prior to the start of the race as well.

Caution one came out on lap one, when # 83 Landon Cassill spun out and collected # 22 AJ Almendinger, # 42 Jaun Montoya, and # 56 Ryan Truex Jr. Just prior to the crash, # 11 Denny Hamlin got lose, and tagged # 99 Carl Edwards in the rear corner panel. This caused Edwards to fall to the back of the field prior to the caution coming out. More troubles came for both Edwards and Almendinger each. Edwards was penalized for lining up incorrectly at the restart, and Almendinger was caught speeding on pit road. Caution two came out on lap 13, when # 32 Reed Sorenson spun out, taking # 36 Tony Raines and # 49 JJ Yeley. A Competition Caution on lap 20 for rains that fell the night before, washing the track off, was cancelled due to the two early cautions in the race. The third caution came out on lap 66 for # 22 AJ Almendinger, when he hit the wall hard in the “Tunnel Turn”. During the stops, # 31 Jeff Burton was hit with speeding, then hit with lining up incorrectly.

Prior to this caution, the drivers had a couple rounds of green flag pit stops. There seemed to be a common theme for most of them. Speeding penalties were being handed out left and right for many drivers that usually do not have penalties. # 48 Jimmie Johnson was hit twice in as many stops on pit road. By the lap 66 caution, the record of fourteen speeding penalties had been reached. It was noticed that most of these penalties were received from the last section on pit road, number ten.

Caution four came out on lap 74, when # 34 David Ragan ran out of fuel on track and was unable to get back to pit road. During this caution period, # 18 Kyle Busch had his day shortened with engine failures. This was his second race in a row with the same failures. Another round of green flag stops was completed with Dale Earnhardt Jr. taking the lead in the race. Points leader # 16 Greg Biffle also had minor engine failures, dropping down one cylinder to seven. A fifth caution flew for debris on lap 124. At the same time, # 43 Aric Almirola hit the wall after having a tire blow out. More speeding violations happened during the caution, bringing it up to twenty-two for the day. Caution six came out on lap 134, when # 5 Kasey Kahne hit the wall hard after a tire failure. Another debris caution flew on lap 149.

The race then concluded in a not so common way in the last thirty-one races. The Pole Sitter won the race. # 20 Joey Lagono was the lead car at the end of the day, just beating out # 55 Mark Martin who has never won at Pocono. The rest of the top ten were: # 14 Tony Stewart, # 48 Jimmie Johnson, # 11 Denny Hamlin, # 15 Clint Bowyer, # 17 Matt Kenseth, # 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr., # 27 Paul Menard, and # 1 Jamie McMurray. Matt Kenseth takes over the points lead, with Dale Earnhardt now in second and Biffle in third.

The next race is at the Michigan International Raceway, next Sunday.