The NASCAR Cup Series is at Pocono Raceway for today’s race (2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network).
Five races remain in the regular season after today’s race.
Here are three things to watch at Pocono:
1. Restarts
More than a third of the cautions in the last two Cup races at Pocono are due to accidents off restarts.
Last year’s race saw three consecutive restarts have accidents. There were four cautions total off restarts in last year’s race.
Pocono’s wide fronstretch invites cars to go three- and four-wide heading into Turn 1 and that’s often where problems can arise. It did in Saturday’s Xfinity race.
Will it happen again in today’s race?
2. Time for a run?
Tyler Reddick has gained 41 points on the points leader in the last three races. That’s put Reddick third in the season standings, 23 points behind series leader Kyle Larson. Reddick has finished second in each of the past two races at Pocono.
The driver to watch could be Denny Hamlin, the track’s all-time Cup winner. He won last year’s race after a late-race duel with Kyle Larson led to Larson hitting the wall.
Hamlin has failed to finish in the top 10 in the last five races this season, putting him fourth the standings. He’s 42 points behind Larson with six races left in the season.
Hamlin was asked Saturday at Pocono about the prospect of winning the regular season championship.
“I think unless they have problems, it’ll be tough,” Hamlin said. “But, everyone is struggling to find consistency, right? We were as consistent as anyone for five weeks and now have had five weeks the exact opposite, so just think you know, we’ll need help for sure and we’ll need to be as good as we were two months ago, right?
“As far as execution and finishing positions. It’s very, very possible, but you’re going to need a few stubbed toes here and there.”
3. Pit road
There will be much to watch with pit road. Strategy can play a key role at Pocono because a car can pit under green without losing a lap. The key is to be within about 12-15 seconds of the leader when entering pit road.
That gives crew chiefs some options on when to pit.
Another key will be the fuelers. It will be all about making sure the fuel cell is full. Get the fuel cell full throughout the race and it could provide the cushion a driver needs to stretch fuel mileage to the end. Don’t get the fuel cell full on a stop, then the car will have to pit sooner than the field and that takes strategy away from the crew chief.
