In the northeast, summertime is a time for busy cityfolk — whether in New York City or Philadelphia — to load up their cars and hit the road for a weekend escape. Some like to go to the beach, whether it’s out on Long Island or along the Jersey Shore. Others prefer the mountains, specifically the Pocono Mountains and the one of a kind racetrack contained therein.
The NASCAR Cup Series makes its annual summertime trip to Pocono Raceway, a track notorious for being the only triangle-shaped raceway of its kind. With three different corners featuring three completely different shapes and degrees of banking — conjoined by especially long and fast straightaways — figuring out how to go fast around Pocono has long been a confounding task for drivers and crews alike. It’s what’s earned Pocono its nickname as “The Tricky Triangle,” and it’s what makes joining the list of drivers to have won at this track such a notable accomplishment.
Where to watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Pocono
When: Sunday, June 20, 2 p.m. ET
Where: Pocono Raceway — Long Pong, Pa.
Stream: Amazon Prime
Storyline to watch
Something that bears monitoring this weekend at Pocono is Carson Hocevar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and exactly what happens when the two meet again either on the racetrack or on pit road. If that sounds incredibly familiar, that’s because it is.
Following their run-in at Nashville, Hocevar and Stenhouse had seemingly found mutual understanding and buried the hatchet by the time the field took the green flag in Michigan. That all changed in Mexico City, however, when Hocevar ran into Stenhouse and spun him out again, which led to Stenhouse angrily coming over to Hocevar’s car in post-race. “I will beat your ass,” Stenhouse told Hocevar while leaning into his car in post-race. “I will when we get back to the States!”
Speaking to SiriusXM on Friday, Stenhouse said that while he’s calmed down since then, he remains frustrated over the situation — particularly given that Hocevar was a lap down when the contact occurred and is also a habitual offender.
“It doesn’t change the fact that you get spun out for no reason,” Stenhouse said. “Felt like it cost us at least seven spots. Yeah, we didn’t wreck like we did at Nashville, but we had put ourselves in a spot — We got spun a couple times throughout that race and just kept trying to fight back and get our track position. It felt like on that long run there at the end that there were still three or four spots right there in front of us that we could get, and then we ended up giving up another four or five spots.
“Just frustrating. Obviously when you’ve got somebody a lap down that had ran into you a couple weeks before that … A couple weeks after Nashville, he said ‘Hey, I’m gonna run you a lot different.’ Which, hey, at Mexico City he waved me by. So I was like, ‘Alright, things are looking up.’ And then obviously he missed his marks and came from kind of pretty far back and ran into us. Again, I know he wasn’t racing us, but it’s just really frustrating for my team and our partners and obviously myself to get spun at a stage like that where there was nothing to be raced for.”
Hocevar, last year’s Rookie of the Year, continues to serve as NASCAR’s main agitator. And he’s also been in the news for the fact that his wallet is now considerably lighter: Spire Motorsports announced this week it had issued an internal $50,000 fine to Hocevar while also mandating he take sensitivity training after he referred to Mexico City as a “shithole” on a Twitch stream prior to the trip down there. Hocevar later apologized for his remarks, which were especially ill-advised given his sponsor Totalplay is based in Mexico City.
NASCAR news of the week
- The Athletic reports that NASCAR is near a deal to run a street course race in San Diego next year, a move that would mark the sport’s return to the Southern California market. A finalized deal would fill a vacuum in the Cup schedule that had been left by the closure and stalled redevelopment of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, as well as The Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum that was held from 2022 to 2024 before being dropped from the schedule this year in favor of Bowman Gray Stadium.
In addition to a proposed street race in San Diego, NASCAR’s Steve O’Donnell also told the Pocono Record that the sport is considering Franklin Field in Philadelphia as another potential site for a future race.
- Rick Ware Racing has filed a countersuit against Legacy Motor Club over a failed charter sale, claiming that Legacy M.C. falsely claimed it had purchased a charter from Rick Ware for the 2026 season. The team claims that when Legacy Motor Club approached them about purchasing a charter, it had been expressed that any charter sale could only be for the 2027 season, and there was then some confusion over whether the sale concerned Charter No. 36 or Charter No. 27, both owned by Ware. While early drafts of the alleged contract included a notice that Ware intended to race Charter No. 27 in 2026, Legacy then claimed it had purchased Charter No. 27 for next year via their agreement.
The sale of the charter had been placed at $45 million, the highest yet for a NASCAR charter. Meanwhile, Rick Ware Racing has said it has tried to return a non-refundable deposit of $750,000 to Legacy Motor Club, but that the team has refused to accept.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. will make his debut as a NASCAR crew chief this weekend, as JR Motorsports announced that Earnhardt will fill in as crew chief for Connor Zilisch during Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Pocono. Earnhardt will take the place of Mardy Lindley, who is serving a one-race suspension stemming from improperly secured lug nuts found in post-race inspection at Nashville.
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. confirmed Friday morning that he has gotten a new spotter, as Clayton Hughes has taken the place of Tab Boyd as spotter at Hyak Motorsports. While a reason for the change was not immediately made known, Boyd had made disparaging remarks about his experience in Mexico City a week ago, saying “screw this place” and claiming he had gotten “hustled and money snatched” shortly after leaving his hotel in a since-deleted post on his X account.
Pick to win
Denny Hamlin (+450) — Welcome back, Denny Hamlin! Hamlin will return to the seat of the No. 11 Toyota after taking paternity leave a week ago, and it just so happens he’s back in action at the track where he’s the single most successful driver of all-time.
From the time he swept the season as a rookie in 2006, Denny Hamlin has become the master of Pocono Raceway, with seven wins — the most in track history — to go with 16 top fives, 23 top 10s and four poles. In recent years, Hamlin earned his 50th career win at Pocono in 2023 and ran second in this race a year ago — and that doesn’t even include 2022, when he won before getting disqualified for failing post-race inspection.
This news was originally published on this post .
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