Local Look: Pocono

Event: Pennsylvania 500

Local papers covering: Philadelphia Daily News, Wilkes-Barre Times, New York Times, Scranton Times

The deal: Bill Fleischman of the Philadelphia Daily News says the June race at Pocono Raceway ended under caution with many of the 100,000 fans booing. A pit-road official fouled up opening the pits, and Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick rammed each other.

Jimmie Johnson won the most recent Nextel Cup Series race at Pocono. Credit: Autostock

By the way, Jimmie Johnson won the race. Also, he now leads the points and is looking to build on it with a Pocono sweep.

Why we care: In only his third full Cup season, Johnson displays the poise of a veteran. Compared with the colorful drivers (think Earnhardt, Tony Stewart), Johnson is vanilla. But he's proven that he's very effective.

For more news about Jimmie Johnson, click here.

The deal: John Erzar of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader says seven races to move up one points position. If Jeremy Mayfield accomplishes that goal, he is guaranteed his best points finish in his last six Nextel Cup seasons.

Jeremy Mayfield has a pair of Cup wins at Pocono Raceway. Credit: Autostock

And he is certain of a shot at the Cup championship.

"We've got to continue doing what we're doing," said Mayfield, who enters Sunday's Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway 11th in points. "We're racing as hard as we can race, doing all we can do to get all the points we can."

Why we care: Pocono Raceway could be the place where Mayfield jumps into the top 10 in points for the first time since the sixth race of the season. He drove his No. 19 Dodge Dealers Dodge to a runner-up finish in June's Pocono 500 and has two of his three career victories at the Long Pond superspeedway.

For more NASCAR news on Mayfield, click here.

The deal: Dave Caldwell of the New York Times says Doc Mattioli, 79, a former dentist who built Pocono Raceway nearly 40 years ago on what had been a spinach farm, is trying to have a cloverleaf put in off Interstate 80 that would bring in even more fans from New Jersey and New York.

And Mattioli said earlier this week in a telephone interview that no one was talking about taking a race from Pocono and giving it to a newer, larger speedway, or about the idea of shortening the length of the races at Pocono to 400 miles.

"There's never been one minute of discussion," Mattioli said of both issues.

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Mattioli, in fact, is welcoming the idea of another track about 90 miles away. It's been reported that International Speedway Corp. has purchased 676 acres of land to build an 80,000-seat racetrack on Staten Island.

"That would be great," Mattioli said. "It would develop fans over there they never knew existed."

Why we care: Pocono is one of only 14 tracks that play host to two Nextel Cup races. Pocono will also host two races in 2005.

"Funny thing, at the time I wasn't sure I wanted to take it," Mattioli said of the second race.

Pocono seems to have withstood the test. When officials announced that North Carolina Speedway, in Rockingham, N.C., would not be included on the 2005 schedule, Pocono jumped to 12th place in seniority among 22 tracks.

For more NASCAR news from around the nation, click here

The deal: Scott Walsh of the Scranton Times says Bishop Griggs loves NASCAR. That's a good thing because he currently is on a whirlwind tour of tracks on the Nextel Cup circuit that would make any race fan envious.

Daytona. Talladega. Darlington. New Hampshire. Richmond. California. Michigan. You name it, Griggs has been there.

As field foreman for the Elrod Corporation of Mooresville, Ind., Griggs and his crew of 18 workers have been installing the SAFER walls at NASCAR tracks all over the country.

Why we care: As field foreman for the Elrod Corporation of Mooresville, Ind., Griggs and his crew of 18 workers have been installing the SAFER walls at NASCAR tracks all over the country.

For more NASCAR news from around the country, click here