LONG POND, Pa. — NASCAR drivers were greeted Friday by a challenging new wrinkle to an already treacherous turn at Pocono Raceway. A wrinkle, a bump — or even a motorcycle jump, depending on whom you ask.
The 2.5-mile speedway’s second corner — otherwise known as the "tunnel turn" for the location of the track’s infield entry lanes — provided rough terrain during opening Sprint Cup Series practice, spawning mixed reviews from drivers and a promise from track president Brandon Igdalsky to find a remedy before the circuit returns Aug. 2. Barring an unforeseen development, a fix won’t happen before this Sunday’s Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM), which could produce interesting competition in the 14th of 36 races this season.
"I’ve still got a headache," former Pocono winner Joey Logano said. "Apparently, winter was really harsh here or something. It’s unbelievable. I figure (extreme sports and motocross star) Travis Pastrana would be really good here with the jump in the tunnel turn. It’s brutal. It’s a big, big jump."
The triangular facility was last repaved ahead of the 2012 season, relatively recently in terms of track surface age. But Igdalsky said the trouble with asphalt settling in Turn 2 was accelerated by severe cold and snowfall the past two winters, and the fact that far less dirt is packed between the infield tunnel and the track’s asphalt.
"Those bumps have been there since we did the repave," Igdalsky told reporters Friday afternoon. "The first year, they weren’t there. The second year, they were there. Last year, they were a little bigger. It’s just been gradual, and the winter this year — these guys will tell you, living in Pennsylvania, the roads this year just got disintegrated. Everything just got beat up so bad because it was so cold. And it’s basically two back-to-back years of awful winters, and they’re taking their toll.
"A road is not any different than a race track at the end of the day. When the ground gets frozen, it does bad, bad things."
Igdalsky said the issue had nothing to do with a new decorative rock wall and waterfall added at the tunnel entrance in an offseason beautification project. But Kurt Busch, Friday’s Coors Light Pole Award winner, hinted that the notion might have some merit.
"For some reason the top side of the entry way was compromised," Busch said. "There are literally speed bumps the size that you would put in grocery store parking lots up on top of the track. Where did they come from? They had to have come from the underside where they were creating a beautiful fancy entryway. It is what it is. The sooner you get over it the better you are going to be."
Because NASCAR returns to Pocono for opening-day practice July 31, the turnaround time for a track renovation project is tight but doable, Igdalsky said. After the visit by the Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series, Indy cars race here three weeks later.
"We’re going to try to get something done before the next race," Igdalsky said. "If it’s as bad for these guys, it’s going to be worse for the Indy cars. So we’ve got to look at them, too. Those races being so close, we’re not going to have time between those two races to get it done. We have a really busy track schedule. We’ve got cars out there just about every day, so it’s just a matter of finding enough days to do something, get the track cleared, do something and then make it work."
The court of garage opinion seemed split on the tunnel turn’s transformation. Reigning Sprint Cup champ Kevin Harvick was among those in favor, tweeting, "Love the character of Turn 2. Makes you really have to change your car up!" Then again, Harvick may have had extra reasons for saying so after finishing opening practice atop the leaderboard.
Tony Stewart spun exiting Turn 2, but blamed his crash into the inside wall’s water barrels on driver error instead of bumps. Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn’t far behind Harvick in fourth place in opening practice, but his review initially was less favorable. Even then, Earnhardt said he felt Igdalsky and the Pocono track management had a handle on the situation.
"I think everything is going to work out," Earnhardt said. "I would be worried had they not been aware of it and not had any interest in fixing it. Brandon does a great job with this place. I’ve gotten to know him really well over the last couple of years. He listens to the drivers, the series officials and really takes what everybody has to say to heart. He just wants to have a good facility people enjoy coming to whether you are a driver or a fan or what have you.
"I’m happy that they are going to tune on it. Whatever they do, anything to improve it. I just think over time another hard winter and it is just going to be a little bit too much."
Among those surprised by the abrupt development in the track surface was Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, who offered hope that the coarse nature of Turn 2 might produce an intriguing 400-miler here Sunday.
"It’s extremely rough," Gordon said. "It’s going to make it an interesting race, for sure. It seems like at speed, you can get through there and get over pretty good. It gets your attention, but if you were inside of a car or something like that, it’s really going to get your attention. We’ll maybe see what we can do to address that when we leave here if there is something that can be done because it did catch a lot of us by surprise. But I don’t know. It might make for a great race and add some unique challenge that we weren’t expecting."
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