Written by Gabriel Tsui, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Following an incredible rain race in Chicago that saw Alex Bowman hold off a charging Tyler Reddick for the race win, and snapping an 80-race winless streak, we will be heading to the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, for the 21st race of the season.
With Bowman’s win, the available playoff spots thin down to five. Will any of the winless drivers punch a ticket to the playoffs, or would the playoff drivers take the win and take their share of the playoff points?
Track Preview
The Pocono Raceway, located in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, is a tri-oval. It was built in 1968 and hosted the first NASCAR Cup Series race in 1971. The track hosted two races starting from 1982, but the second race was replaced with a race in Gateway, more commonly known as the World Wide Technology Raceway.
The track has three turns, the first turn being the steepest with a banking of fourteen degrees. The second turn has an eight-degree banking, and the final one has six-degree banking.
It has a distance of 2.5 miles (4.0 kilometres), therefore classified as a superspeedway. The drivers will drive 160 laps around the raceway, with 30 laps in the first stage, and 65 laps each in stages two and three, totalling a distance of 400 miles (644 kilometres) driven around the track.
The weather report indicates chances of rain on Friday and Saturday, but only partly cloudy on Sunday. The race will commence on July 14th, at 14:30 ET (11:30 PT, 20:30 CET).
Race Predictions
If we are talking about the best manufacturer of the season so far, it’s definitely the Chevrolets. They have been pulling in win after win this season, totalling nine wins so far. With Alex Bowman taking the win in Chicago, Chevrolet now has five drivers in the playoffs.
They certainly are hoping to add a few more to the playoffs list to support the championship run, and they have experience here in Pocono. After the transition to next-gen cars, Chase Elliot took a win here in Long Pond in 2022. If they can take their chances and avoid silly mistakes, they definitely have a shot.
However, the favourites remain as the Toyotas. In 2022, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were first and second but were disqualified for illegal modifications. But in 2023, they came back and dominated the race, taking 1-2-3 with no Chevrolets in the top five.
And counting from 2017, the Toyotas took six wins out of the seven races, with three of those wins coming from Denny Hamlin. Therefore, I believe that one of the Toyotas, more likely one of the JGR senior drivers, will take the win and strengthen their playoff positions.
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