Pocono Raceway is something of an outlier in the NASCAR Cup Series. The field gets spread out and pit strategy plays a big role. A lot of people don’t like that, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that a race there isn’t enjoyable to watch.
Compared to last year, this race was a little staid. According to NASCAR’s Loop Data, there were 1209 fewer passes under green this year as compared to last year, despite there being 10 more laps under green. There were also only eight lead changes, which is an all-time low for a Cup race at Pocono. That includes rain-shortened events and the doubleheader weekends.
Why was this so? There never really was an explanation about the reasons why, but from what I saw, clean air was very important. Every time someone got the lead, they were able to pull out to a decent advantage in a hurry. Of the eight lead changes, four came from drivers staying out during rounds of stops under yellow. The only change that came outside of the first lap after a restart was when Denny Hamlin took the lead from Josh Berry on lap 67.
With not a whole lot of action at the front of the field, NBC Sports had to find other ways to make this race exciting once it got away from the immediate time around restarts. In this case, the strategy more or less replaced the good action on the track that viewers crave.
If you’re doing that, you have to make sure you have your facts straight. Early on in the race, Steve Letarte seemingly screwed up the laps and thought that there was an extra lap in the stage. That influenced his commentary for multiple laps. It was only on the final lap of the stage that he realized his mistake.
The caution for Todd Gilliland’s brake failure/wall contact set up the race to be won on fuel mileage. Had it run to the finish from lap 121, it may have been much more interesting to watch and the broadcast booth would’ve had more to do.
Racing-wise, a race with a dearth of action at the front of the field means that you have to search a bit more to find some good action. Early in the race, NBC Sports did a decent job at it. There was some good action to be had on Sunday (July 14) and viewers saw some of that. At the same time, it was rather difficult to pass.
On the 23-lap run to the finish, most of the coverage was centered around Hamlin trying to run down Ryan Blaney. The problem is, the two of them were nearly equal on pace. So, viewers saw a lot of single cars running around by…
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