2019 Nascar - Pocono - Race #14

[GA_Boater]

Not an oval and not a road course, Pocono's unique hybrid tri-corner track is the scene for Cup and X-Action this weekend. Practices begin tomorrow, X-Race on Saturday and Cup runs on Sunday. Sunday marks the start of the 2nd half of the regular season.

This is an impound race and Cup cars will be inspected before Saturday qualifying and locked up until Sunday afterwards. I don't want to say the R word, but it's in the forecast. 37 Cup teams are signed on for the race. The MRN schedule;

Pocono Schedule of Events


All Times Eastern

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Friday, May 31
ARCA Menards Series Final Practice: 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
ARCA Menards Series Qualifying: 12:00 p.m.
Xfinity Series First Practice: 1:05 p.m.-1:55 p.m. (MRN/NASCAR.com)
Monster Energy Cup Series First Practice: 2:05 p.m.-2:55 p.m. (MRN/NASCAR.com)
Xfinity Series Final Practice: 3:05 p.m.-3:55 p.m. (FS2)
Monster Energy Cup Series Final Practice: 4:05 p.m.-4:55 p.m. (MRN/FS2)
ARCA Menards Series General Tire 200: 5:30 p.m. (FS2)

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Saturday, June 1
Xfinity Series Qualifying: 10:05 a.m. (FS1)
Monster Energy Cup Series Qualifying: 11:35 a.m. (MRN/FS1)
Radio Pre-Race: 12:30 p.m. (MRN)
TV Pre-Race: 12:30 p.m. (FS1)
Xfinity Series Pocono Green 250: 1:00 p.m. (MRN/FS1)

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Sunday, June 2
Radio Pre-Race: 1:00 p.m. (MRN)
TV Pre-Race: (FS1)
Monster Energy Cup Series Pocono 400: 2:00 p.m. (MRN/FS1)

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News and Notes

• I used the word hybrid in the opening because a Prius might be the Toyota Gen 7 base car. Nascar is pondering hybrid power plants beginning in 2021. Hmm, or should that be HUM?
• Charlotte only had lugnut inspection failures, just a fine for the Stenhouse and Joey teams.
• Roush Fenway unveiled Ryan Newman's throwback ride for Darlington. I think it's the one in the back. Tubular!
  • 
• Jeff Gluck's weekly race poll results;
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• TV ratings - The rating for Charlotte on Fox was 2.6 and 4.3M viewers, last year was 2.3 and 4.1M viewers. The Charlotte 600 was the last Fox broadcast race before NBC takes over. The final Fox races are gonna be on FS1.

iBoats Fantasy Live

• After 3 races, we have a new winner. FlaCowboy broke Jip's 3 race streak. Humpty is happy cuz his new Sawsall from Ebay came with no blades. Congrats, Cowboy. Enjoy your whole :first:
• justkiddin 5 is hangin' tough on top of the leaderboard.
• The pole locks at 11:30Am Saturday.

Good luck all,

Humpty.

 

[MTboatguy]

Hybrids don't bother me as long as they do it the way the F1 series has done it, make it a whole different series of racing, and let them go at it, but HP is always going to be king in the motorsports and jumping out of a car to change cars mid race is going to turn a lot of fans completely away from the sport we know as NASCAR..

 

[GA_Boater]

Putting my feet into Nascar's shoes - More and more fans are driving hybrids and E-Cars. Since part of the Nascar name is "stock cars", the sport should race the same kind of cars the fans are buying, like today's 2 door RWD Mustangs, Camaros and Camry's.

 

[GA_Boater]

1st Cup practice top 5 - Suarez, Blaney, Bowman, The Whining Twerp and Keso.

Final Cup practice is a little after 4PM.

 

[GA_Boater]

Final Cup practice top 5 - Busch1, Keso, Larson, Stenhouse and The Whining Twerp were fastest.

The pole locks at 11:30 tomorrow morning. So far DiBenedetto is starting at the rear on Sunday after an engine change following the today's first practice.

 

[GA_Boater]

Couple of coffee reading items this morning;

• During the Indy 500 festivities, Nascar Pres and VP reportedly met with Honda reps. Could Honda be joining the Nascar ranks? http://autoracingdaily.com/nascar-reportedly-meets-with-honda-in-indianapolis/
• A slight change in Pocono qualifying - Instead of single car runs, cars will be sent out in groups of 3,15 seconds apart. Once the last car in the group gets the checkers and nears the tunnel turn, the next group is released one car at a time with the 15 second interval. I guess Nascar thought last week's single car qualifying took to long - Roughly 40 minutes for 40 cars.

If you're a pole-sitter picker, you have until 11:30 to lock it in.

 

[GA_Boater]

Jones and Buescher cars have failed inspection twice and lost a crew member. They need to pass the 3rd time or no qualifying run for them. EDIT - They did pass the 3rd time through.

X-Qualifying just finished and Custer got the pole. It took about 40 minutes with the staggered 3 car Q'ing like Cup will use in a few minutes.

 

[GA_Boater]

If you picked Byron for the pole, you got 5 bonus points unlike me.

The rest of the top 12 qualifiers are The Whining Twerp, Bowyer, Jones, Keso, Hamlin, Larson, Johnson, Suarez, ADillon, Harvick and Elliott. Rosters lock at 1:55PM tomorrow.

X-Men go green at 1PM.

 

[GA_Boater]

The X-Race finished in OT. Lap leader Custer led 58 of the 103 laps and won heat #1, Allgaier took heat #2. A late lap caution brought out OT and Reddick took the lead from Custer until the final corner when Custer went around for the checkers.

Most of the day the leaders, Custer and Allgaier with 27 laps led, were running away from the field, the racing behind was pretty good and a good finish. It was nice not seeing the more experienced Cup drivers in the mix.

Make you iFL roster changes by 1:55 PM tomorrow. And I better do mine!

 

[aspeck]

Been a crazy week ... local schools prepping for graduation ... rain and water rescues/recoveries ... rescue boat training all day today and tomorrow after service ... I was lucky to pick my team tonight ... good luck all...

 

[GA_Boater]

Green flag wave has been moved ahead from 2:12 to 2:00. Those 12 minutes will make all the difference if (when) it begins to rain. If the track is lost it takes 2+ hours to dry Pocono - After the rain stops.

From the Nascar weatherman;

I’m sticking with my 70-75% Odds of Racing for @poconoraceway but yes concerned of possible delays from storms - also fans be aware some storms could be strong to severe in the afternoon

Pocono has no lights and sunset is 8:28. Contingency plan is Noon Monday on FS1 and the forecast is sunny, windy and chilly with 59 as the high.

 

[FlaCowboy]

Finally someone jipped Jip...

3 wins in a row is impressive though...congrats on that Jip...:thumb:

Hopefully we will get the entire race in today...Good Luck Everyone

 

[GA_Boater]

Rain may have passed by and missed the track. Pop-ups are still possible, we'll have to wait and see.

 

[GA_Boater]

Motors fired up for Pocono! A line of rain forming to the west and moving in the wrong direction Blow on by!

Heat 1 and 2 are 50 laps with the final heat 60 laps.

 

[GA_Boater]

The stands look maybe half full. Threat of rain keep some fans home?

 

[GA_Boater]

Green flag.....................Until the first yellow!

 

[GA_Boater]

Showers are building and closing from the west, darnit.

 

[GA_Boater]

1st yellow is a competition caution. Why do they do those things?

Only tires, no refueling allowed.

 

[GA_Boater]

Larson out of the pits in 1st. Byron dropped to 6th.

Back to green.

 

[GA_Boater]

A real yellow for ADillon into the wall. He just swerved left Tire?