LONG POND, Pa. -- Boring, antiquated and too long.

These are all words that have been used to describe Pocono Raceway recently as it has come under fire after talks of purchasing the independent track surfaced.

First it was Jeff Gordon.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver said it was outdated and he is surprised the triangle-shaped track still has two Sprint Cup events. He contends NASCAR should be in other markets.

"I feel like it's obvious that this is a track that needs some upgrades and I still believe that," Gordon said. "At this day and time with this series at the level it's at, to go to a racetrack that has some of the bumps and some of the SAFER barriers and different things that we have here or lack of, in my opinion its only being constructive criticism as to what I think upgrades they need to have, especially if they want to continue to stay on the circuit going forward."

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I think if we ran 400-mile races that would be better. There would be more racing throughout the event than just riding around for however many miles because you have so long to go.

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KYLE BUSCH

And now, series points leader Kyle Busch said the races are too long.

"I think 500 miles is too much," Busch said at Pocono on Friday. "I think if we ran 400-mile races that would be better. There would be more racing throughout the event than just riding around for however many miles because you have so long to go."

Then, when asked to address more of his concerns about Pocono Raceway, Busch said he feared Sunday will be "a boring race."

"That's a big concern. I don't know what we'll see. I don't know what it will all entail, but we all thought the same sort of thing here," Busch said. "You just get within a few car-lengths of the guy in front of you and you get stuck and you just can't go anywhere. Besides all of that, we'll just try to make the most of it and have a good run."

The string of gripes came after Gordon heard that Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith was interested in buying Pocono in order to give his Las Vegas track a second Cup date and his newly acquired speedway in Kentucky a first.

From the looks of it, Pocono isn't going anywhere as the Mattioli family said it is not for sale and never will be as long as the family is in charge of the front office.

And besides that, the drivers are enjoying a new virtue displayed at the Northeastern raceway they feel could make for better racing on Sunday for the Pocono 500 (12:30 p.m., TNT).

They call it "the patch," a partial paving job in Turn 3 apparently for crumbling asphalt and disrepair.

Richard Childress Racing driver Clint Bowyer said it has changed the track a lot.

"The first day I was looking at it out there ... I thought, I should go up there and try that. I was telling [Jeff] Burton and [Kevin] Harvick ... nobody was up there the first day," Bowyer said, speaking of the recent test session at the track. "I said 'You know, I am going to try it up there, it is a long ways out there, but I think there is probably a ton of grip out there.'"

Word got out and this weekend all the drivers are trying to run that same high groove, Bowyer added.

Carl Edwards said he's not even trying to run the bottom.

"That new strip of asphalt just feels so good, everyone's running up there," Edwards said. "I think it's going to make for an interesting change in the passing zones, where before you could come up in the tunnel turn, get inside someone and then you'd have the preferred line. Now, if you get inside someone they'd have the preferred line, so it'll be a little more give and take, a little more passing heading into the tunnel, which will be exciting."

Teammate Greg Biffle was uncertain of the intention behind the repaving job but is glad they chose to do so.

"I'd be willing to bet that it's not a mistake, but on accident, it has created a top groove that really, really runs good and is real fun to drive, and it makes that upper groove fast," he said. "So that's going to put a lot of racing into this racetrack, where a guy can get his car working very well on the bottom, and then a guy running up top. So I think it's going to create some exciting racing, and I'm certainly happy to see that new bit of pavement up there."

Denny Hamlin said he noticed everyone gravitating to the newly paved Pocono patch as well.

"Even with that little patch in Turn 3, everybody is fighting for that one lane of new asphalt," he said. "Nobody is running the bottom and everyone is running that one lane and 43 cars are not going to fit on it."