The last time the Sprint Cup Series invaded Pocono Raceway, Brian Vickers came half a fuel run from scoring his first victory for Team Red Bull.

Crew chief Kevin Hamlin called that race and watched as Vickers lost out to fresher tires at the end. With the return trip to the 2.5-mile triangle this weekend, Hamlin said it likely was going to be the same kind of race.

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At Pocono, it's three different corners and the track is so rough you have to find where your car wants to run. That might not be where someone else wants to run.

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KEVIN HAMLIN

"Track position is so important there, because clean air seems to be very important with this car at a lot of places, but at the bigger places like Pocono it's even more important," Hamlin said. "We kind of had to play a different strategy to get where we got [in June]. That left us with tires that were not quite as fresh as what Kasey [Kahne] ended up with. In the end that kind of hurt us, but it still enabled us to have a good finish."

Vickers lost the lead to Kahne with 15 laps remaining, and couldn't catch the eventual winner on 10-lap-older tires. A victory would have been huge for the team, Hamlin said.

"It would mean a lot, any race, whether it was Pocono or anywhere, it would be pretty big."

Hamlin said that strategy could be refined, and while he didn't give up all of his strategy secrets, he did say that the options open to him on the pit box were almost limitless.

"There were some people who took no tires last time, but it depends on how many laps you run and how much you want to gamble on fuel," Hamlin said. "You can pit and just get fuel, we saw that, too. You get yourself some good track position and you can pit under green and not lose a lap, too."

As for tires, Hamlin was confident that there wouldn't be a repeat of the Indianapolis debacle.

"They had a good tire for Pocono the first race, and we're taking the same tire back, so I don't think we'll see any problem with that," he said.

While the triangular-shaped track presents a unique challenge to drivers and crews, the stress on the engine and tuners isn't near what it used to be even though the race is still 500 miles.

"It's a long race," Hamlin sighed. "It seems like that race just takes forever. Maybe not as long as Indy ... what a mess that was. It's different than when I first started going there because we don't shift gears anymore. The way they have us locked down on gear ratios, transmission ratios, makes it a little harder. You can blow your stuff up pretty easy if you mess up.

"It's just a very long race, and it takes them forever to get around there. I like Pocono. A lot of people hate Pocono, but I kind of like it. The area is real pretty, and the track is cool and different, but the motor guys still kind of hate it.

"It's not really tough on engines because you sustain the RPMs for a while. The other corners, you're still dropping RPMs down pretty good and then pulling back up through. It's not like other places where you sustain the RPMs a lot longer and the corner speed doesn't drop down that much. It's more friendly to the motor men because we don't shift gears anymore."

Brian Vickers

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Pocono's unique layout means that drivers have to find a place to run and stay there. There's no changing lines at Pocono.

"Indy has two long straights where Pocono has a big long one, then two medium-sized straights," Hamlin said. "We call it three corners. At Indy, two corners are kind of the same, and the other two corners are kind of the same. At Pocono, it's three different corners and the track is so rough you have to find where your car wants to run. That might not be where someone else wants to run."

One thing that Hamlin and all of the other crew chiefs are sweating is the bump-stop setup.

"When we shifted gears here, it was a lot harder on valve springs than it should be in theory, now," Hamlin said. "Of course, you also had to worry about your transmission breaking there, too. Anymore, it's such a different thing. With the bump-stop thing now, since one corner has bank in it and the second one is flatter and the third one flatter still, it's a hard thing to figure out how much bump-stop load you want to run there because you have three different situations you have to get through."

One of the keys to any race at Pocono is being able to save fuel, which drivers hate to do.

"It's a driver thing, and it's that way everywhere we go," Hamlin said with a chuckle. "They let off the gas earlier and they ease back into the gas. It's a finesse thing when they want to save gas. You can draft a little bit there and still save fuel."

If it comes down to the end of the race and Vickers is in the hunt, Hamlin will use a couple of those strategy ideas to get the No. 83 Toyota team its first victory.

Also
• Red Bull teams hit stride with strong finishes at Pocono
Video
• Vickers talks about finish | Strategy makes difference