John Hunter Nemechek passed team owner Kyle Busch on a restart with six laps left and pulled away to win Saturday’s CRC Brakleen 150 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway.
Nemechek crossed the finish line at the 2.5-mile triangular track 1.337 seconds ahead of Busch, who had led 20 straight laps after pitting three laps before the conclusion of Stage 2.
The victory was Nemechek’s series-best fifth of the season and his third in head-to-head competition against his Kyle Busch Motorsports boss.
“These guys just work so hard,” Nemechek said of his team. “We never gave up. We weren’t very good the first stage. Without this opportunity—without Kyle and Toyota, I wouldn’t have had it. Five wins this year and beat Kyle—three for five against Kyle is pretty good odds.”
Busch had a lead of nearly 1.5 seconds over Sheldon Creed when Stewart Friesen’s hard crash into the Turn 1 wall brought out the fourth caution on Lap 51 of 60. Busch chose the top lane for the subsequent restart on Lap 55, with Creed behind him and Nemechek on the inside of the front row.
With a strong push from Todd Gilliland, Nemechek’s No. 4 Toyota barely cleared Busch’s No. 51 in Turn 1 and slid up in front of the team owner.
“The 38 (Gilliland) gave me a big push,” acknowledged Nemechek, who picked up his first victory at Pocono and the 11th of his career. “I got a great restart… and I kind of cleared myself there. (Spotter Tony) Hirschman was still saying ‘Outside, outside’ in the middle of (Turn 1).
“I thought I was clear in my mirror and slid up and took the air away from Kyle. After that, we set sail.”
Busch stayed close to his protégé until Creed powered to the inside of Busch’s Toyota with three laps left. Contact between the trucks ended Busch’s winning chances.
“The Cessna Tundra was pretty good,” said Busch who posted two wins and three runner-up finishes to Nemechek in five Truck Series starts this season. “We were up front there leading, and the caution came out and bunched us all back together.
“We got… not a great restart, but a decent restart. We were all even getting into (Turn) 1, and John Hunter just slid me and got the lead. I was trying to figure out what I could do to fight back and get the lead back, and I got drilled in the left rear. That basically handed the win to the 4 truck.”
Creed ran third, followed by Tyler Ankrum and Austin Hill. Matt Crafton, Gilliland, Zane Smith, Ryan Preece and Derek Kraus completed the top 10. Hill’s top-five finish today scored him enough points to be the first driver to clinch a spot in the Playoffs on points.
Johnny Sauter’s quest to make the postseason suffered a serious below as the field took the green flag to start the race. Jack Wood’s Chevrolet spun out of control after contact from Chandler Smith’s Toyota and knocked Sauter into the outside wall near the start/finish line.
Sauter finished 35th, five laps down and fell 31 points behind Smith in the race for the final Playoff spot with two regular-season races left. Nemechek increased his series lead to 86 points over second-place Ben Rhodes, who came home 17th Saturday after a late pit road speeding penalty.
Note: Post-race inspection confirmed Nemechek as the winner. No issues were found.
The No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Cole Custer will start at the rear of the field for Saturday’s Pocono Organics CBD 325 at Pocono Raceway (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) following two pre-race inspection failures.
Custer was set to line up 26th in the 130-lap race on Saturday afternoon. The second-year Cup driver enters the race 27th in points, a year after he made the NASCAR Playoffs as a rookie following a win at Kentucky Speedway.
No other cars will drop to the rear ahead of Saturday’s race.
Pocono is ready to host a massive racing weekend, including a Cup Series doubleheader.
The “Tricky Triangle” — as the uniquely shaped 2.5-mile venue is nicknamed — is also described as a “roval.” While other tracks of similar length are called superspeedways, Pocono’s three sharp corners require a mixture of road-course maneuvering talent, along with tri-oval superspeedway power in the straightaways — which gives you the “roval” description.
Take a look at who tops BetMGM’s NASCAR racing odds for Saturday’s Pocono Organics CBD 350, and who might creep up and snatch a win away from one of the heavy favorites.
This is getting redundant, isn’t it? Racing at Pocono this weekend doesn’t change the narrative for Kyle Larson.
Larson tops the racing odds once again, then Larson wins the race — it’s been quite the trend for weeks now. Four weekends now actually, to be exact — which includes the NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas. In fact, Larson hasn’t finished lower than second in a Cup Series race since May 2 at Kansas — and he even won a stage in that race and was battling for the lead late in that race.
So being the odds-on favorite isn’t a surprise, we’ve established that. When you’ve had 11 top-five finishes in 18 starts this year (including the All-Star Race), that will come.
Larson has never won a Cup race at Pocono, but he’ll have two opportunities in a unique doubleheader setup. They’ll race Saturday and Sunday, with the race length varying only 10 laps (130 on Saturday, 140 on Sunday). Larson did win at Pocono in the Xfinity Series in 2016, and he has six top-10 finishes in 12 starts in Cup.
OTHERS: While Larson is clearly the most deserving of being atop the odds, Denny Hamlin (+700) has been the most dominant driver when it comes to Pocono. He tops the charts (along with Jeff Gordon) for all-time Cup wins at the track (six). That’s right, Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Jimmie Johnson — none performed better at Pocono than Hamlin has. Hamlin has 13 top-five finishes and 20 career top 10s at Pocono in 30 attempts.
Also? Hamlin desperately needs a win to make the rest of the season comfortable. While he leads the Cup circuit in points, Larson has closed what was once a massive gap between Hamlin and the rest of the field. It’s now only a 10-point margin and Larson could overtake Hamlin this weekend. Chase Elliott (+800) and Kyle Busch (+800) round out the top of the odds and are traditionally strong here.
THE DARK HORSE THREAT
Brad Keselowski (+1400)
While Keselowski barely fits into the top 10 in odds this week, he does have a strong history at the track. For the current drivers who’ve started 10 or more races at Pocono, Keselowski leads the pack with an average finish of 11.0.
He also has 10 top-fives and 13 top-10 finishes in 22 starts, with one win — and has won there in the Xfinity Series. Keselowski is currently sitting in 10th place in the NASCAR Cup Series standings and could use the points boost.
OTHERS: William Byron (+1000) has an average finish of 9.7 in six career starts at Pocono in the Cup Series. He’s also won at the track in the Camping World Truck Series.
THE INTRIGUING LONG SHOT
Erik Jones (+10000)
With five top-five performances at Pocono in eight career starts, Jones makes for an interesting choice here. Though his transition to the Richard Petty Motorsports team from Joe Gibbs Racing has been a bit bumpy this year, his talent and his past results at Pocono make him somebody to keep an eye on. He has averaged a finish of 11.4 at the Pennsylvania track.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 24, 2021) – Earlier this month, the NASCAR industry welcomed 22 graduate and undergraduate students from across the country to begin the 10-week NASCAR Diversity Internship Program (NDIP) – the sport’s longest-running diversity initiative.
The industry-wide program offers students of color hands-on experience as well as the opportunity to network with and learn from executive leaders across one of the largest professional sports industries. This year’s class has been placed in paid internship roles across various NASCAR departments, 23XI Racing, Rev Racing and CSM Production.
“For more than 20 years, the NASCAR Diversity Internship Program has provided a critical foundation for NASCAR’s evolving and expanding diversity, equity and inclusion platform,” said Brandon Thompson, NASCAR Vice President, Diversity and Inclusion, who in June 2020 became the first NDIP alum appointed to an officer role at the sanctioning body.
“These internships create opportunities for young, diverse talent to be exposed to NASCAR and learn about the sport, but they’re also filling a pipeline as we continue to diversify the broader industry workforce.”
This year’s NDIP class is the first since 2019 after the program was canceled last year due to the impact of COVID-19. Roles will allow interns to apply concepts learned in school while expanding their knowledge working closely with talented professionals from the motorsports community.
The program will culminate in August as the interns return to school or pursue full-time roles within NASCAR or across other industries. Of the more than 400 interns that have participated since 2000, many were offered full-time employment following their internships and to this day NDIP alums continue to make significant contributions to the sport.
The sanctioning body employs several former interns including Kathryn Lee, Director, Marketing Activation; Marvin Aylor, Director, Partnership Marketing; Jusan Hamilton, Director, Racing Operations & Event Management; Erica Wilkerson, Manager, Youth & Multicultural Marketing, Jasmine Neely, Manager, Industry Communications and Victoria Garcia, Associate Producer.
Throughout the summer, NDIP interns will collaborate on group projects and have access to mentors, former interns and lunch-and-learn sessions hosted by NASCAR executives.
The following students have been selected to the 2021 NASCAR Diversity Internship Program class:
Sunday: Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 (⏰ 3:30 p.m. ET | 📺 NBCSN | 📻 MRN, SiriusXM)
Everything you need to know for this weekend’s doubleheader at Pocono Raceway, the 18th and 19th points-paying races of the season.
Full schedule: Get times, TV schedule and results from the weekend
Where: Pocono Raceway, a 2.5-mile tri-oval in Long Pond, Pennsylvania Grand Marshal: Sat: Jeff Moyer, CEO, Rodale Institue | Sun: Bill Colavito, Board Chair, Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau TV/Radio: NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Forecast: Sat: A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2 p.m. Patchy fog before 8 a.m. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Sun: A chance of showers after 2 p.m. Partly sunny, with a high near 89. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Race Distance: Sat: 130 laps, 325 miles | Sun.: 140 laps, 350 miles Stages:Sat.: 25 | 77 | 130 | Sun.: 30 | 85 |140 Pit-road speed: 55 mph Caution car speed: 70 mph Pocono 101: Get the full lowdown
Lineup:Full lineup for Sunday’s race Pit-stall assignments: See who is pitting where Sunday | Teams will walk a fine line on pit road
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Five to watch
Here are five big story lines we’ll be following at Pocono Raceway (
1. Perhaps the biggest question this weekend is not ifKyle Larson will win — but how many times? At the rate he’s been visiting Victory Lane, it would be a true shocker to see 2021’s strongest driver so far go 0-for-2 at the “Tricky Triangle,” even though he’s winless there in his previous 12 attempts. Apart from three outlier races from 2017-18 when he had finishes of 33rd, 23rd and 26th (and in that one, he won both stages), Larson has averaged a 7.44 finish in his nine other starts at Pocono. Combine that with the scorchingly hot streak he’s on and he’s the clear favorite for at least Saturday’s race, and probably Sunday, too. | Debate: Will Larson win Regular-Season Championship?
2. Of course, we know Larson’s streak will end at some point (at least, we think so) it’s just a matter of when and by whom. This weekend feels like it could be just as good an opportunity as any for another organization to usurp Hendrick Motorsports atop the leaderboard and Toyota’s Joe Gibbs Racing is the clear team in waiting. Early 2021 dominator Denny Hamlin won his sixth Pocono race last year, tying Jeff Gordon for most all-time at the track, and six of the last seven drivers to win there did so in a Toyota — all of whom now drive for JGR. Given it has two shots this weekend to take down Hendrick at one of its best tracks, it seems likely JGR will come out of the mountains with at least one win. | Debate: No. 2 team behind Hendrick right now?
3. Then again, JGR isn’t the only team beginning to close the gap on Hendrick. Stewart-Haas Racing is starting to rebound from a dreadful start to the season by its historically elite standards with last weekend’s Nashville race weekend among the team’s 2021 highlights. Team leader Kevin Harvick has been near-exceptional at Pocono lately, notching a win and a runner-up in last year’s doubleheader, his eighth top-six result in the last nine “Tricky Triangle” races. After last year’s nine-win career-year for the veteran, it’s unfathomable that we’re closing in on July and he’s winless. That may not be the case much longer, however. (And for what it’s worth, Aric Almirola scored the most points combined — 94 — in last year’s doubleheader.) | More: SHR starting to find its rhythm
4. After the season opened with two first-time winners amidst a slew of surprising starts in the first few weeks, we haven’t seen one since. Might Pocono mark a good chance for us to see a third, given the nature of a doubleheader lends itself to some outside-the-box happenings, especially with the lineup inversion from Saturday to Sunday? Four drivers got their first Cup win at Pocono, three of whom are active drivers (Hamlin, Chris Buescher and Ryan Blaney). Tyler Reddick seems determined to right the ship after some off races and he’s looked capable of winning at times this season. Though in a slump, Matt DiBenedetto is driving for the team that Blaney picked up his first win with, and Ross Chastain has found an extra gear as of late. Don’t count out Daniel Suarez or Bubba Wallace, either, who would not only be picking up the first win for themselves but also their respective first-year teams.
5. At this point in the season with the number of races left before the playoffs now in the single digits, it’s hard not to start peeking ahead to the postseason. This year has been an entertaining one, and with nine races left before the field is trimmed to 16, we’re sure to see fireworks over the coming weeks with five of 2020’s 13 victors still winless this year —including the two drivers that combined for 16 wins. The cutline is full of interesting names and movements, with the likes of Kurt Busch, Chastain and Suarez all trending upward, DiBenedetto and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also below the cutline and Buescher and Reddick starting to sweat a little. Strange things tend to happen at Pocono and a surprise winner isn’t out of the equation. Toss in three road courses and the regular-season finale at Daytona as potential wild cards and we’re looking at a potentially wild summer ahead.
Race-day staples
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles. •Power Rankings: Christopher Bell about to make some noise? | Scope the ranks •Paint Scheme Preview: Check out the Pennsylvania looks | See the schemes •Fantasy Fastlane: See which drivers to use, avoid | Full Fantasy advice | Set roster
• Playoff Watch: How the 2021 NASCAR Playoffs field is shaping up | See the outlook
• Who’s headed where: Key players in 2021-22 Silly Season | See the players •Preview Show: Double the races, double the fun | Watch the show
Get in on the action
Think you know NASCAR? Put your mettle to the test with gaming, fantasy
• How NBC Sports is integrating betting content into NASCAR broadcasts | Learn more
• It could come all down to speed on pit road | Fastest pit crews of 2021
• Take a shot at winning cash prizes with the free-to-play Jackpot Races app | Hit the jackpot
• Full guide to 2021 NASCAR Fantasy Live game | Get the FAQ
History at Pocono
Every track has a story to tell. Here’s what we’ve seen go down at Pocono Raceway in the past. • Tricked out: All-time wins: Pocono Raceway-1 | See them all • Late bloomers: All-time wins: Pocono Raceway II | Learn more • Blaney’s first: Former Wood Bros. driver’s fist Cup win among Pocono memories | View the moments • Front of the field: Top 10 lap leaders at Pocono Raceway | See the leaders
Fast facts
Hard-hitting, race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights. • Chevrolet is winless in the last nine Pocono races, with the last win coming in 2016.
• Eleven of the last 14 Pocono winners started in the top 10.
• Only two of the last 17 Pocono races were won by a driver under the age of 30.
• The driver who led the most laps won four of the last 11 Pocono races.
• Both Pocono races in 2020 were caution-free during the Final Stage.
Catch the pack
Read up on all the headlines from the week leading up to race weekend. • Jeff Gordon named vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, will leave FOX after 2021 | Read more • Team Penske ‘not panicked, but definitely realistic’ | Read more • NASCAR competition VP on sharpening eye on Hendrick | See what he said • No. 19 JGR team fined for lug-nut violation at Nashville | Penalty report • Track-by-track updates, protocols for grandstand seating and fan access as COVID-19 restrictions ease | Read more • LaJoie to drive ‘Stroker Ace’ tribute car at Kansas | See the car
• Where are they now? Catching up with Shawna Robinson | Read more
Say what?
Notable quotes from the stars of the sport heading into the race weekend. “Just because we had success in the doubleheader there last year, I don’t think it will automatically mean we’ll have success this year. A lot of things about the cars and the rules have changed since last year. But I’m optimistic about it. I think we’re going to continue to get better as a team. And these summer months are really where we should be hitting our stride.” — Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
“(Hendrick is beating us) everywhere. That makes it easy to go work. You don’t have the kind of dominance that those guys have had over the past six weeks without just a pretty incredible combination of things. Everybody is always asking, ‘What is it? What do we need to work on?’ And it’s kind of like anything, it’s a lot of little things, it’s a lot of stuff in all different places. Certainly, their engine program is really strong. It seems like their stuff is very well-suited for where we were racing. Some of the RPM ranges at the tracks we’ve been I think they’ve been really strong and the 5 car has been able to put himself in another league from everybody else, so I think we’re all trying to learn off of the specifics of that right now.” — Travis Geisler, Team Penske competition director
“I think the race at Pocono comes down to mistakes. Making the playoffs comes down to that. Being able to recover from them is nice; but the more times you can go through races without having those big, critical moments and mistakes is going to help everybody’s peace of mind. You’re going to get more points because of it. It’s just a little easier if you don’t make those mistakes. Yes, it’s hard to be perfect all the time, but it’s a fun process in learning how to get better. I definitely am learning from those mistakes. You’re always going to learn from mistakes; they’re just never going to stop coming your way. New situations, new scenarios – I’ll just keep trying to adjust the best that I can to keep getting more points for my team.” — Tyler Reddick, driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Pocono Raceway, better known as the “Tricky Triangle,” is not only a technical track for drivers but a chess match for crew chiefs and pit crews alike.
We saw this play out in last season’s Pennsylvania doubleheader weekend. Twice.
Struggling to make their way into the lead late in the opening Pocono race, Rodney Childers rolled the dice for Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 crew, electing to make a final green-flag stop for two fresh Goodyear tires with 36 laps remaining.
Other drivers in the field had made four-tire stops — even Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola, who led a race-high 61 laps. The strategy and execution paid off.
Harvick rolled out of the pits and cycled through to be the new race leader for the first time that afternoon. He went on to lead the final 17 laps, holding off a hard-charging Denny Hamlin who pitted after Harvick and couldn’t chase him down in time.
In the second race, the tables turned.
Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gabehart adjusted their game plan, electing to stay out and build a larger lead while Harvick battled traffic after his stop. By the time the No. 11 came to the pits for the final time with 20 laps to go, only taking right-side tires, the lead was too big for Harvick to overcome.
Heading into this weekend’s slate, both drivers who dominated Pocono last year find themselves winless this season. The good news is that they each have one of the fastest pit crews in the Cup Series.
Pit road strategy will almost certainly factor into the eventual race winners this weekend. Based on their success in 2020, the No. 4 and No. 11 teams set the blueprint for a race-winning strategy at the 2.5-mile asphalt track if there are long, green-flag runs. Both final stages last year were run entirely under green.
What we know for sure is that being out front early at Pocono has rarely translated into a win in recent history. Only two of the sixteen stage winners at the track have gone on to win the race. Neither of them was a Stage 2 winner. Nine of the last 14 winners at the track didn’t even lead for the first time until halfway through the race. Being in a position to roll the dice at the end is what matters.
Hamlin, still the regular-season points leader, carries an impressive streak of three consecutive top-two finishes into Saturday’s race — only trailing Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon (five) and Richard Petty (four) for most all-time. The No. 11 JGR wheelman is tied atop the all-time Pocono wins list with Gordon at six. Don’t be surprised if he returns to race-winning form this weekend under the leadership of Gabehart and crew.
Both races at Pocono will be a total team effort — and if last year’s trend holds true, we could see another strategic battle come down to the wire to decide who captures the checkered flags this weekend.
Jack Ingram, winner of five NASCAR championships and more than 300 races during his career, has died. The Avery’s Creek, North Carolina, native and 2014 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee was 84.
Ingram was a force in NASCAR Sportsman competition during the 1970s, winning championships in 1972, ’73 and ’74. He continued to whip the competition when the series underwent major changes and emerged as the Busch Series (now Xfinity) in 1982.
The shorter schedule for the new series “was like taking a holiday,” he said in a 2014 interview. His record certainly seemed to indicate as much – Ingram won a series-leading seven times en route to the inaugural title, finishing with 24 top-10 results in 29 starts.
He outpointed fellow North Carolinian Sam Ard by 49 points to capture the ’82 crown.
‘When I ran for the (Late Model Sportsman) championship in ’72, I ran 81 races,” Ingram once recalled. “In ’73 I ran 84 (races). … But in order to win a championship in those days, you had to run everywhere, including the weekly events … which still counted toward the national title.”
All those races and all those wins eventually led to Ingram being dubbed the Iron Man, a fitting sobriquet for the hard-nosed racer who could race as hard, or as smart, as anyone filling his mirror or his windshield.
After finishing second to Ard for the championship in 1983 and ’84, Ingram captured his fifth and final NASCAR title in ’85, beating out Jimmy Hensley for the Xfinity Series crown.
In addition to two runner-up finishes in the points battle, Ingram placed third in ’86 and fourth in ’87.
“There is no better way to describe Jack Ingram than ‘Iron Man,'” NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France said in a statement. “Jack was a fixture at short tracks across the Southeast most days of the week, racing anywhere and everywhere. He dominated the Late Model Sportsman division like few others. He set the bar for excellence in the Xfinity Series as its Most Popular Driver in 1982 and champion in 1985. Jack was an “old school racer” and his work on his own car helped propel him to Victory Lane hundreds of times. Of our current 58 NASCAR Hall of Fame members, he is one of only six that was elected based on his career and contributions in the grassroots level of our sport. On behalf of the France family and NASCAR, I offer my condolences to the friends and family of NASCAR Hall of Famer Jack Ingram.”
Ingram’s nine years of full-time competition in the Xfinity Series saw him score 31 victories – a record that stood until it was broken by Cup Series regular Mark Martin in 1997.
He ended his Xfinity Series career with 122 top-five and 164 top-10 finishes in just 275 starts.
Ingram’s accomplishments stood out “because he was the driver, crew chief, car owner and chief bottle washer on his team for most of his career,” the late Jim Hunter, longtime NASCAR official who passed in 2010, once noted. “He was a no-nonsense, get-in-your-face, hard-nosed, fender-scraping racer who took no prisoners on the track.
“In spite of his hard-nosed temperament, Jack was … very popular among his peers.”
Ingram scored his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win in 1982 at Hickory (North Carolina) Speedway, capturing the Mountain Dew 300. The .363-mile track would prove to be a favorite – eight of his 31 career wins came there.
Ingram was at his best on the series’ short tracks, but he proved he could win elsewhere, too, snatching victories at treacherous Darlington Raceway as well as the Milwaukee Mile.
But his most memorable win, Ingram often said, came in 1975 during his Late Model Sportsman days when he drove a slightly mangled No. 11 entry to the victory in the 11th annual Permatex 300 at Daytona International Speedway.
With plenty of tape covering damage to the right side of the windshield, Ingram drove away from runner-up Joe Millikan and third-place Harry Gant for the popular victory.
The race, broadcast by ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,’ thrust Ingram into the spotlight and earned him fans from all across the U.S. as well as several foreign countries.
Rainier Ehrhardt | NASCAR via Getty Images
Ingram recounted the Daytona victory prior to his NASCAR Hall of Fame induction in 2014, noting that NASCAR officials were going to black flag the racer for damage to the windshield. However, veteran Cup owner Junior Johnson, acting as Ingram’s crew chief, convinced officials a little tape would solve the problem.
“Junior said he would fix it and they believed Junior,” Ingram said. “Now, he didn’t fix it but he taped it up and they let me finish the race and we won and that was the best time of my whole racing career.”
His final victory in the series came in 1987 and fittingly, it also came at Hickory Speedway.
By the time he finally decided to call it quits in 1991, he had 317 career wins in NASCAR-sanctioned events.
A former plumber and pipe fitter, Ingram attended his first race when he was 14 years old. “I saw a poster on a utility pole (advertising) stock car racing,” He told RPM2night.com in 2014. “I was fascinated by automobiles already. Me and my friend decided we’d ride our bicycles to Asheville-Weaverville Speedway (to see the race). I didn’t even know it existed.”
Like more than a few kids and some adults at the time, Ingram “slipped under the fence” to see the race. What he saw amazed the young teen.
“Banjo Matthews and Cotton Owens, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly, Joe Lee Johnson … it was a modified race,” Ingram recalled. “That was the most fascinating thing I’d ever seen.”
Ingram once ran six short track races in five states in a five-day span. It was the Labor Day holiday weekend in 1973 and tracks across the country were hosting shows. Ingram began his six-race stint with a victory at Columbia, South Carolina, on Thursday, then hauled his familiar No. 11 entry to Beltsville, Maryland, the next night where he finished second. The following evening found him competing at Lonesome Pine Speedway in Coeburn, Virginia. (where he won again) and from there it was a short jaunt down the highway to Maryville, Tennessee, and Smoky Mountain Raceway for win No. 3.
A flight put him in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Labor Day Monday where he ran fifth in an afternoon race and by that evening he was back in the Volunteer state, finishing fourth in the Late Model feature at Nashville Fairgrounds.
Between 1964 and 1985, Ingram also made 19 starts in NASCAR’s premier series. His best finish was runner-up to Richard Petty in the 1967 Buddy Shuman 250 at Hickory. Ingram finished one lap down to the winner while it was one of a record 10 consecutive victories for Petty that year.
Oct. 5, 1991 was declared “Jack Ingram Day” by North Carolina Gov. Jim Martin in recognition of Ingram’s racing accomplishments.
It’s difficult at times even for professional gamblers to find an edge against the oddsmakers. This weekend’s Cup Series doubleheader at Pocono Raceway is one of those times.
Seventeen races into the season, the books have things pretty much figured out, particularly in races where the 550-horsepower, high-downforce package is used.
One sharp NASCAR bettor thought he’d be able to find value at least in Saturday’s race, the Pocono Organics CBD 325, before bookmakers had a chance to adjust their prices for Sunday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 350. Saturday’s opening numbers, though, appear tough to beat.
“Based off what I’ve seen so far, at least the outright market (odds to win), I was really hoping to find some value on a couple of guys, but it looks like the books just got it right,” said pro gambler Zack White. “So I think they’ve got a good feel about who’s going to run well with these downforce packages and especially the downforce with the 550. At this point in the season, the books have kind of got a handle on it.”
Working in bettors’ favor, though, is that race luck is typically less of a factor with 550-hp engines. While these races are not known to be among the most exciting on the circuit, fewer lead changes and crashes mean the right bets are more likely to cash.
“There’s less variance for accidents or pit road issues,” White said. “I think that’s probably what we’re in for – not a lot of passing, kind of a drawn-out race without many cautions or anything. But from a betting perspective, that can be a good thing. If your opinions are right, there’s an opportunity for the race to play out the way you’ve mapped it out, without much weird stuff happening.”
It’s difficult to find an edge, but not impossible, and White will be trying to catch a mistake or two in the matchup props.
“You’re going to be looking for very small, ‘did somebody screw up a little bit here or there?,” he said. “There’s not going to be any glaring errors going into the first race, I don’t think.”
Saturday to Sunday
Most major sportsbooks have posted odds only on Saturday’s race, waiting to see how it plays out before taking bets on Sunday’s event. Based on last year’s Pocono double, teams will perform similarly from one day to the next, and the oddsmakers will move their numbers accordingly.
“Let’s just say the Gibbs cars go out and run 1, 2, 3 (Saturday), and they’re the fastest cars on the track the whole race, well sure that would switch the odds dramatically,” said oddsmaker Ed Salmons, who handles NASCAR duties at SuperBook USA in Las Vegas.
“Last year was (Kevin) Harvick and (Denny) Hamlin just back and forth in both races,” Salmons continued. “In the first race last year, the Chevy cars were way off on speed and whatever they did, they got the cars more competitive on Sunday, but you don’t go from non-competitive to winning, put it that way.”
White agrees there’s little reason to believe Sunday’s race will play out much differently than Saturday’s, but he mentioned a few factors for bettors to keep in mind.
“Did anything change overnight to make me think this race is going to run differently?” he said. “Is it going to be overcast? Is the track temperature going to be 30 degrees cooler, did the track get washed green, who went to a backup car?
“So there’s a couple of little things you can look at and say, ‘Okay, I think this is going to run a little bit different.’ But for the most part, I think they’re going to run similarly.”
Kyle gonna Kyle
It’s June 2021, so any conversation about NASCAR Cup racing eventually circles back to the No. 5, and our bookmaker and bettor both anticipate Kyle Larson running up front again at Pocono.
With Larson starting on the pole in the first race and not much passing expected, “We might be in for another Kyle Larson show all weekend,” White said.
Added Salmons, “From what we’ve seen in NASCAR this year, you expect Larson to go out there and lead a million laps again. Unless something mechanical happens – or these restarts at Pocono can get real hairy, so you never know with that – but he figures to have a field day. I mean, it’s just been ridiculous.”
Larson’s odds in the first race of the doubleheader are in the +210 to +225 range around the betting market, implying a 30 percent or better chance to win.
“For this set of races, he’s certainly fairly priced,” White said. “Is the guy winning this race one out of three times? I think so. Starting up front for the first one, with the speed he’s shown with the 550 package and downforce tracks this year, it’s hard to say the guy’s not gonna win at a 30 percent clip.”
Others to watch
While Hendrick Motorsports has emerged as the dominant team in the Cup Series, a host of other Chevy drivers are starting to show some speed, including the duo from the Ganassi garage.
“It’s obvious that something’s going on with (Ross) Chastain and Kurt Busch lately because all of a sudden their cars have gotten really fast and we haven’t seen that all year,” Salmons said.
Last week at Nashville, Chevrolets took six of the top eight spots, including a second-place finish by Chastain, and only two of those six Chevys were Hendrick cars.
“It was pretty obvious in practice that Chastain had a really fast car. Except for Larson, he could have won that race,” Salmons said.
“Even (Ricky) Stenhouse this past week was blazing fast (and finished in sixth). Probably the best car he’s ever had at the Cup level. So whatever Chevy’s got going on, it’s working.”
Two races in two days? Count us in. The NASCAR Cup Series travels to the “Tricky Triangle” this weekend for a doubleheader at Pocono Raceway. The action begins with the Pocono Organics CBD 325 on Saturday (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports Live, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and continues with the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports Live, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.)
With two races on the docket, let’s take a look at how teams will navigate the second consecutive set of races in the hills of northeastern Pennsylvania.
WHO’S STARTING WHERE?
By virtue of the typical matrix formula that has been used throughout the 2021 season, Kyle Larson will lead the field to the green flag for Saturday’s event with Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron next to him on the front row. Behind them in Row 2 will be Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano.
The lineup for Sunday’s race, however, is entirely dependent upon the results of Saturday’s event. The top 20 finishers from Saturday’s 325-mile, 130-lap race will be inverted to begin Sunday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 350, meaning the Saturday winner will start 20th on Sunday, while Saturday’s 20th-place finisher starts from the pole Sunday for the 140-lap contest.
As a reminder, teams will be required to use the same vehicle in both races this weekend. If a team determines its car is too damaged Saturday to be used Sunday and needs to utilize a backup car, that team will start Sunday’s race from the rear.
FAN ATTENDANCE
Fans will be welcomed back to Pocono Raceway in full capacity for the first time since 2019 as the COVID-19 pandemic barred spectators from entry last year.
Camping spots have already sold out for the venue, while tickets still remain available at www.poconoraceway.com/tickets. Fans who are fully vaccinated will not be required to wear masks, and the facility will operate without social distancing. More information can be found via the track’s website.
Cup Series teams will utilize the high-downforce, 550-horsepower package in the Pocono Mountains this weekend. This package features a taller spoiler and longer splitter to increase downforce around the racetrack.
POCONO HISTORY
— Pocono Raceway is celebrating 50 years of hosting races on its 2.5-mile triangular layout. The facility opened with a USAC open-wheel race in 1971 before welcoming the Cup Series in 1974.
— Denny Hamlin’s win in the race No. 2 in the 2020 doubleheader was his sixth Pocono victory, tying him with Jeff Gordon for the most wins all-time at Pocono.
— Hendrick Motorsports is the most successful team in the track’s history with 17 wins, 71 top fives and 129 top 10s in 253 combined starts. The organization has led an astounding 3,270 laps. Joe Gibbs Racing has led the next most with 1,721 laps led.
— Despite its historic Pocono success, Hendrick Motorsports is 0-12 in its last 12 Pocono tries. Hendrick had won six of its prior 12 starts at the Tricky Triangle.
— Joe Gibbs Racing has picked up where Hendrick left off, winning five of the last seven Pocono races (and Toyota has wins in six of the last seven). Denny Hamlin has won two of the last three.
Source: Racing Insights
GOODYEAR TIRES
Teams will work with a new tire combination this weekend at Pocono, utilizing the left-side tire previously used at Darlington Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway in addition to the multi-zone tread right-side tire previously used at Auto Club Speedway.
Bringing the left-side tire from Darlington and Homestead should provide more grip on the very flat Pocono surface as drivers navigate three unique turns, all of different degrees of banking. The multi-zone tread on the right side provide a two-inch compound designed for heat resistance and a 10-inch compound meant for more grip.
“Pocono is as unique a track as we have on the NASCAR circuit,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “It’s flat, it’s fast, and every turn and straightaway is different from the last. The one advantage Cup teams will have is that while they will have no practice this weekend, with a doubleheader of races, they will be able to tune on their setups over the two days and figure out what works and what is fast.”
INSIDE THE TURNS
Why is Pocono Raceway called the “Tricky Triangle?” That’s because of its unique, triangular shape with three very different corners.
Turn 1: 14 degrees and modeled after Trenton Speedway
Turn 2: 8 degrees and modeled after Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Turn 3: 6 degrees and modeled after Milwaukee Speedway
The front straight of 3,740 feet at the 2.5-mile track is the longest and widest in the Cup Series.
BET ON IT
Kyle Larson has never won at Pocono Raceway, but given his outstanding streak of three wins in a row — four if you include the NASCAR All-Star Race — the oddsmakers are still considering Larson the favorite by a wide margin. BetMGM lists Larson at 21-10 odds, while Denny Hamlin is next best at 7-1.
Others to keep an eye on include Chase Elliott (8-1), Kyle Busch (8-1), Kevin Harvick (9-1) and William Byron (10-1).
Looking for a sleeper? Consider Aric Almirola (50-1). While he’s had a miserable start to the season, Almirola enters off his best weekend of the year at Nashville Superspeedway where he won the pole and finished fourth. Almirola netted the most points in last year’s doubleheader by finishing third on Saturday and fifth Sunday. He’ll roll off 11th to begin Saturday’s race.
— In the inaugural iteration of the Pocono doubleheader, Kevin Harvick claimed his first win at the Tricky Triangle on Saturday with Denny Hamlin in second. On Sunday, Hamlin won while Harvick was second.
— William Byron currently holds the best average finish of any driver at Pocono with more than one start at 9.67 with six starts under his belt.
— Just two of the 16 stage winners at Pocono have gone on to win the race.
— Nine of the last 14 Pocono winners led their first laps of the race past halfway.
— Kyle Larson is aiming for his fourth consecutive points-paying win. He would be the first driver to achieve the feat since Jimmie Johnson did so in 2007 and would become only the ninth driver in NASCAR history to accomplish it.
— Corey LaJoie carries recent momentum into Pocono on the heels of four straight top-20 finishes, already setting a career-best for LaJoie. The No. 7 team finished 15th at Nashville.
— Hendrick Motorsports is the only team in the sport’s modern era to win five races in a row and have done so four times, including the five-race win streak it’s currently on. Hendrick won six races in a row in 2007 and can tie that number with a win on Saturday.
Source: Racing Insights
FANTASY LIVE
Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out NASCAR Fantasy Live. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew-chief instincts. It’s not too late to join in on the competition.
The 2021 Fantasy Live points leaders are Denny Hamlin (682), Kyle Larson (662) and William Byron (596).
ALSO ON NASCAR.COM
Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week a select number of in-car cameras will be available — as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.
New for this season, NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement in the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more — and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.
After winning his 100th NASCAR Xfinity Series race last Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway, Kyle Busch will compete in his own team’s equipment in Saturday’s CRC Brakleen 150 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Pocono Raceway (12 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
This will be Busch’s final Truck Series start of the season. In his first four 2021 races, Busch has won twice and finished second to teammate John Hunter Nemechek twice.
The Truck Series’ career wins leader with 61 victories, Busch is the only multiple winner at Pocono (2015 and 2018) and the only former winner at the Tricky Triangle competing in Saturday’s race. Kyle Busch Motorsports trucks have won five of the last six events at Pocono.
Busch is gratified that the addition of Nemechek to his roster has added to the organization’s critical mass, but Busch is determined to win the rubber match between the drivers on Saturday.
“Did I expect them to do what they’ve been doing? Absolutely,” Busch says. “This was kind of the idea and the reason why we did what we did. Did I think they would have this many Playoff points by this point? Probably not that, but did I think that they would have three wins (actually four)? Certainly.
“Did I think they would beat me twice? No. So we’ve got one more. I told them ‘Don’t screw it up.’ I got to win Pocono, and then he can have the rest of the year. It’s all his.”
As a part-timer in the Truck Series, Busch isn’t running for the championship, but Sunoco rookies Carson Hocevar and Chandler Smith come to Pocono uncomfortably close to the playoff bubble.
With three races left in the regular season, Hocevar and Smith provisionally hold the final two playoff spots on poins. Hocevar leads Johnny Sauter by 30 points (the first driver out coming into Pocono), and Smith is 15 points ahead of the ThorSport Racing driver.
Both rookies are racing for the first time at Pocono in the Truck Series this weekend.
