Insider's View: Wally Dallenbach

Pondering Pocono

I love Pocono. It's always been a good track for me as a driver and I absolutely love getting behind the wheel at the big 2.5-mile triangle. They always say road course drivers do well at Pocono and I guess I can see why.

Pocono has three corners that are all completely different. You really have to set-up your car to run well in one corner and sacrifice the other two. You go into turn one very fast, have to adapt through the tricky tunnel turn in two and then glide around turn three which as flat as a desktop. So it really is a drivers' track.

	Wally Dallenbach

Before you have to navigate through any of the turns you power your way down the 3700 foot long front straightaway at about 200 mph. The key here is obviously horsepower and you have to be able to outrace everyone down the main straight before funneling your way into turn one.

I liked to downshift into one rather than use the brakes in order to keep the revs up in the motor so you could power out of the turn. You have to keep your car way down at the bottom of the racetrack, almost with your two left tires on the grass. It's pretty bumpy down there too so you have to watch out you don't catch a bump and get shot back up the track.

You get on the gas and head into turn two, the dreaded Tunnel Turn at Pocono. You have to drive in here deep and let the car roll through the turn, which can get kind of hairy. When you're through turn two you get back on the gas and let the car kind of drift up toward the wall as you head down the short chute for turn three.

Turn three at Pocono is a key because it's so big you spend a lot of time getting through there. I swear the first time I went through this flat turn it felt like it was banked the wrong way. You'll see lots of action through here especially early in the race when cars are on the edge because of cold tires. It doesn't take much to upset a car through here, it's like you could lean out the window and kick a car next to you with your foot and it would go sideways.

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But while the turns are tricky and important, to me Pocono is all about horsepower. In fact I'd give up handling for a car that had about 10 more horsepower. You have to be able to mash that accelerator and go at Pocono or it's going to be a long day.

Robert Yates Racing has always done well in the past at Pocono because of the horsepower those engines make. I'm going to watch closely and see how Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler do this week and if they can't smoke the field at Pocono, they'll probably stop making my list of "Picks to Click."

The Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart should do well at Pocono. Bobby runs very good there and has been hot lately. Tony has had nothing but bad luck but is still very capable of making it to victory lane.

	In many ways, Pocono is like a road course. Credit: Autostock

Jeff Gordon always runs well at Pocono so look for him to again be a factor on Sunday. And Ryan Newman should also be a force because those Penske cars can make a lot of power, which is key at Pocono.

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