Pocono Raceway
Records
Date Series Driver Speed
7/21/96 Sprint Cup Race Rusty Wallace 145.00
6/13/04 Sprint Cup Qualifying Kasey Kahne 172.533
Sprint Cup Series
Upcoming Race Aug 1 Sunday 1:00 P.M. ESPN
Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500
Track Facts
Location: Long Pond, PA
Banking/Turns: Tri-Oval
Distance: 2.50 miles
Shape: Tri-Oval
Most Cup Wins (since 1975)
* Bill Elliott 5
Sprint Cup Date Race Name Pole Winner Race Winner Make Purse
6/6/10 Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 Kyle Busch Denny Hamlin Toyota $4,945,083
6/7/09 Pocono 500 Tony Stewart Tony Stewart Chevrolet $5,077,262
8/3/09 Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 Tony Stewart Denny Hamlin Toyota $5,077,262
6/8/08 Pocono 500 Kasey Kahne Kasey Kahne Dodge $5,037,783
8/3/08 Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 Jimmie Johnson Carl Edwards Ford $5,037,783
6/10/07 Pocono 500 Ryan Newman Jeff Gordon Chevrolet $4,940,543
8/5/07 Pennsylvania 500 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kurt Busch Dodge $4,935,998
6/11/06 Pocono 500 Denny Hamlin Denny Hamlin Chevrolet $4,841,521
7/23/06 Pennsylvania 500 Denny Hamlin Denny Hamlin Chevrolet $4,836,658
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
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LONG POND, Pa. , Jul 27, 2010 - For Immediate Release
Dodge Motorsports NSCS Race Advance
Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500
Pocono Raceway
Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010
DODGE AT POCONO RACEWAY
• Dodge has six wins at Pocono Raceway (Richard Petty (1974, ‘76), Bill Elliott (2002), Ryan Newman (2003), Kurt Busch (2007) and Kasey Kahne (2008).
• Dodge’s Kurt Busch dominated the 2007 fall race at Pocono en route to victory, leading 175 of 200 laps in the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge.
• Dodge has started from the pole three times at Pocono since its return to Sprint Cup racing in 2001 (Bill Elliott – 2002, Ryan Newman – 2003 and Kasey Kahne – 2008).
• Dodge currently holds the track qualifying record at Pocono (Kasey Kahne, June, 2004 – 52.164 sec. 172.533 mph).
THE DODGE BOYS
• Dodge has 207 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
• Dodge’s most recent win came at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch led 252 laps en route to victory in the Coca-Cola 600.
• Dodge has claimed two Sprint Cup victories in 2010.
• Dodge teams have posted 47 wins since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.
• Dodge has posted wins each season since it’s return in 2001 including seven wins twice (2002 and 2006).
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Lee Petty, 2/1/53, West Palm, Fla., 100 miles, .5-mile track.
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Pocono: Richard Petty, 08/04/1974, Purolator 500, 115.593 mph avg. speed.
POCONO RACEWAY FAST FACTS
• Dodge won the first race at Pocono Raceway when Richard Petty led 142 of 192 laps at the rain-shortened Purolator 500 in 1974.
• Dodge’s Kurt Busch has four straight top-10 starts at Pocono.
• Penske Racing has reached victory lane eight times at Pocono Raceway.
DID YOU KNOW?
• Kurt Busch holds the second-best driver rating of all active drivers at Pocono – 106.8 (Denny Hamlin – 123.6).
• Busch has led in 13 of the 20 Sprint Cup races this season. He has led 807 laps this season, the most by a Sprint Cup driver.
• Busch is the seventh driver in Charlotte Motor Speedway history to sweep both the Sprint All-Star and Coca-Cola 600 races.
• Sam Hornish Jr. posted top-10 finishes at both Pocono events last year and finished 11th in the Cup Series’ first visit to the 2.5-mile track earlier this year. He has led 16 laps at Pocono, more than at any other track.
• Brad Keselowski started 11th and finished 21st in his only NSCS career start at Pocono in June.
KURT BUSCH – INSIDE THE CHASE NUMBERS
• Busch is currently fifth in the Sprint Cup standings, 262 points out of first and 284 ahead of 13th (M. Martin).
• Busch has two wins, seven top-five and 12 top-10 finishes this season.
• In the next six races which will set the field for the 10-race Chase for the Championship, Busch posted top-10 finishes in four of those events last year.
• Busch has 13 wins at five of the eight tracks hosting events leading up to the 10-race Chase: Pocono – 2, Michigan – 2, Bristol – 5, Atlanta –3, Richmond – 1.
ENGINEERING TALK
"With the longest straightaway in the Sprint Cup Series and the heat of a mid-season visit, the two-and-a-half-mile Pocono track becomes one of the toughest durability tests the teams will face all year. Over the last two years, the new Dodge R-6 has proven itself to be one of the most reliable engines ever introduced into Sprint Cup racing. We anticipate it'll be able to take this test in stride as well. "
Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering
DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The truth is that we really struggled there in the first race and we were super fortunate to come out of there with that sixth-place finish. We didn’t run good enough to deserve that finish. We missed the setup big time. It was one of those days when it wasn’t pretty. But I’m fine with taking it, though, because most of the time, it’s a case of us running better than the the figures show.” Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger
DODGE DRIVER QUOTES
“It’s been a good track for us that’s for sure. I’ve struggled with the new car to get those wins, but (we’ve had) some solid finishes. To get around all those different corners, each one of them has different bumps and with this new car, bumps are hard to navigate. Turn 1 used to be my best corner, but with this new car it’s now my worse. The way that the bumps are and the high speed entry into Turn 1, you have to change your game a little bit. Turns 2 and 3 are very important corners as well. You can’t shift there anymore. With the big bumps on the track, these cars are definitely tougher to get around. We got on a pretty good streak there several years back with the old-style car, winning like two out of five races and finishing second in two of the other,”
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger
“I enjoy the unique challenge that racing at Pocono provides. Obviously, the more you run at a track, the more you are going to learn about what it takes to be fast there. I should be a much better Pocono racer this weekend with the experience of that first race under my belt. (The track) has characteristics of Indianapolis and we had a strong car there last weekend. We just struggled to find some racing luck. The No. 12 Penske Dodge team has run better than our finishes have indicated over the last month.”
Brad Keselowski, No 12 Dodge Charger
“We have a much bigger notes package heading into the second race at Pocono. That gives us a lot of confidence that we can improve on our effort from June. Going back to these tracks for a second time – and getting better results – is very important to the growth process of this team. We were able to post one of our best qualifying efforts of the season for the first race, but we had a mechanical failure that kept us from a good race finish. There has definitely been improvement in this team over the last few weeks. I see us carrying that into Pocono this weekend.”
Jay Guy, crew chief, No. 12 Dodge Charger
DODGE BOYS NSCS 2010 BEST
• Kurt Busch -
Start - Pole – Las Vegas
Finish - Win – Atlanta, Charlotte 1
Last Updated: Friday, Jul 30, 2010 5:56 pm, EDT
Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500
Pocono Raceway
Order Driver (No.) Car Qualifying Speed
1 Tony Stewart (14) Chevrolet 171.393
2 Juan Pablo Montoya (42) Chevrolet 171.096
3 Denny Hamlin (11) Toyota 170.371
4 Jeff Gordon (24) Chevrolet 170.222
5 Ryan Newman (39) Chevrolet 169.936
6 Jimmie Johnson (48) Chevrolet 169.901
7 A J Allmendinger (43) Ford 169.879
8 Jeff Burton (31) Chevrolet 169.770
9 Jamie McMurray (1) Chevrolet 169.696
10 Mark Martin (5) Chevrolet 169.613
11 Brad Keselowski (12) Dodge 169.543
12 Greg Biffle (16) Ford 169.447
13 Kurt Busch (2) Dodge 169.440
14 Kevin Harvick (29) Chevrolet 169.163
15 Sam Hornish Jr. (77) Dodge 169.122
16 Kasey Kahne (9) Ford 169.100
17 Joey Logano (20) Toyota 169.024
18 David Ragan (6) Ford 168.995
19 Marcos Ambrose (47) Toyota 168.700
20 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) Chevrolet 168.672
21 Kyle Busch (18) Toyota 168.669
22 Bobby Labonte (71) Chevrolet 168.602
23 Paul Menard (98) Ford 168.413
24 David Reutimann (00) Toyota 168.366
25 Carl Edwards (99) Ford 168.347
26 Matt Kenseth (17) Ford 168.294
27 Scott Speed (82) Toyota 168.083
28 Martin Truex Jr. (56) Toyota 167.951
29 Elliott Sadler (19) Ford 167.813
30 J.J. Yeley (46) Dodge 167.629
31 Reed Sorenson (83) Toyota 167.370
32 Travis Kvapil (38) Ford 167.330
33 Joe Nemechek (87) Toyota 167.156
34 Regan Smith (78) Chevrolet 166.988
35 Landon Cassill (09) Chevrolet 166.988
36 Michael McDowell (55) Toyota 166.979
37 David Gilliland (37) Ford 166.457
38 Dave Blaney (66) Toyota 166.392
39 Casey Mears (36) Chevrolet 166.322
40 Clint Bowyer (33) Chevrolet 165.511
41 Kevin Conway (34) Ford 164.165
42 P.J. Jones (7) Toyota -
43 Todd Bodine (164) Toyota 166.276
44 David Stremme (26) DNQ 165.386
45 Max Papis (13) DNQ
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options
Dodge Motorsports NSCS Final Qualifying - Pennsylvania 500 - Pocono Raceway
LONG POND, Pa. , Jul 30, 2010 -
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger) Qualified 11th
“We caught a good cloud and ran a decent lap. It looks like we’re going to start in the top 13, maybe a little better. That’s a solid start again. Qualifying has been good over the last two weeks. I feel better about our race setup than where we were the first time here. So, we’re ready to get going. We’re fighting all those things that make double duty such a challenge, but we’re ready to give our best.”
KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger) Qualified 13th
“We were just tight in practice and over-compensated a little bit, so we ended up on the loose side for our qualifying lap. We picked up a good amount of speed. We just didn’t quite have enough stability in the car to stand on the throttle hard. The car kind of drove me in qualifying today. Our race setup seems promising. We just need more laps tomorrow to really dial it in.”
SAM HORNISH JR (No. 77 PPG Dodge Charger) Qualified 15th
“It was OK, not quite as good as I would have liked, but the car was a little bit too free off of Turn Three. Being that way, it hurts you coming to the green as you’re not quite as fast as you should be on the long straightaway and it hurts on your actual lap. The way we ran through (Turns) One and Two, we were pretty good, but Three we have to work on. We ran well here the last time. We changed some things in our setup, came back with some things that we thought would be better for us. We’ll see how it pans out. We’re going to stick with it a little longer (in practice tomorrow). If necessary, we have our old setup in our pocket.”
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options
Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes - Kurt Busch Open Interview - Pocono 2
LONG POND, Pa. , Jul 30, 2010 -
KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger) YOU HAVE TO FEEL GOOD COMING BACK TO POCONO AS A PAST WINNER? “To come to a race track that you’ve won on, it always gets you pumped up and amped up for the weekend. We didn’t have the best of races here a month ago, so we’re looking to rebound and put together a good strong effort that could give us a shot at a win. We were just off that one race because we had one or two things wrong in our chassis setup. Overall, our Miller Lite Dodge has been competitive. The practice speeds were decent for us today. We just didn’t get that perfect qualifying run; we were on the tight side. We’ll loosen her up and give her a good run in qualifying. Most importantly, tomorrow morning’s practices are the key moments of the weekend, trying to get the car dialed in for the longer run. Hopefully, everything goes good for us. It seems like when we can catch a good break, we can really do some good things and that’s what we’re looking for this weekend.”
WHAT ROLE SHOULD THE MEDIA PLAY IN DISCUSSING THE NASCAR CONTROVERSEY OF ISSUING SECRET FINES? “You’re entitled to your opinions and those are important. We don’t need to necessarily focus on the empty grandstands that we see and write about it. We need to worry about what racing action is going on out on the race track. What’s going on behind the scenes as far as who got fined for saying what is like anything in any sport, if you’re going to criticize the officials, the officials are going to swipe back with some cash. It’s all fun and games. It has to be reported. The biggest issue is what happens out on the track and that’s what we need to say focused on.”
HOW DO YOU APPROACH THE LAST SIX RACES BEFORE THE CHASE? “We feel comfortable with the point gap that we have on 13th place. Where we are on the Miller Lite team, we’ll just go for wins. We have to bring those bonus points with us into the Chase. The thing to do is focus on what we have been doing this past month for setup and are they going to work at the tracks in the Chase. Those are the important things – getting wins and staying focused on finding new ideas that will help propel us to a strong Chase.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE OWNERS MEETING THAT HAPPENED AT CHARLOTTE THIS WEEK? HAVE YOU TALKED TO ROGER ABOUT IT? “I haven’t actually (talked to Roger). I didn’t know that some of those meetings were going on. Roger just said that they were coming up; I didn’t know that it happened this week. There’s always the core focus on what we can do as a group to race at a competitive level like we are, but also do it cheaper. Whether it’s engine-related items, the process of building cars…the new front end next year will definitely be a positive step in my mind and what we saw with the Nationwide cars at Daytona is the direction that we need to head to create more of that brand identity that we want to see with our race cars. So those steps that NASCAR is taking to make sure there is better action on the race track as well as a cheaper budget for some of the teams are important.”
YOU MADE A COMMENT ABOUT THE NATIONWIDE CARS; WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THAT (IDENTITY) TRANSFERRED OVER TO THE CUP SERIES? “Absolutely. I think the way those cars look, the way they catch your eye, you know that one is a Chevrolet or that the Dodge Challenger looks pretty cool. That’s the branding that we need to see back on the race track. The way these cars look and run right now, we can do just the smallest thing to make them look better and that’s the direction I think we should head.”
WHAT ABOUT NEXT SEASON FOR KURT BUSCH? “I signed a multi-year deal to drive the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil car for 2011 and beyond. I’ll still be with Penske Racing yes, but I’ll be in the No. 22 car. Basically, we’re just changing our shirts and we’re changing the car number. It will still be the No. 2 crew and Steve Addington is going to lead the group.”
THE RACE YOU HAD SEVERAL YEARS AGO WITH RICKY CRAVEN (DARLINGTON), COULD YOU TALK A LITTLE ABOUT THAT CLOSE FINISH? “That was an amazing race at Darlington, 2003. The way that the track raced then with the old asphalt, tire management was of upmost importance. We usually don’t hear that statement a lot any more because tires last so long. You don’t have the high wear that you did have at Darlington. So on that last run, I squirted out into the lead. I got a three-wide pass done on Jeff Gordon and Elliott Sadler. Maybe I ran a bit too hard early because Ricky Craven was chewing our time up at the end, almost a half-second a lap he was catching us. Catching somebody at Darlington is one thing and passing them is another. We put up a great fight, a great battle, between two guys that really respected each other. We both ran each other as hard as we could. We shoved each other into the wall, hit each other in the front bumper, rear bumper, in the door, you name it, but there was never that intention of wrecking the other guy, something that we see from some guy in our garage area right now that you don’t really want to race with because he’ll just turn right on you. That day with Craven, it was an amazing race. I felt like I’m going to win this bad boy and Craven is going to have to do something special to get by us. He was thinking the same thing, he was going to win this race and Kurt was going to have to do something special to hold him off. Just a great see-saw battle that went on the last five laps of an epic race and just to lose it by two-thousandths of a second, the more times I tell the story, maybe one day I’ll win it when I’m done telling the story. A great guy, a great battle and two guys shook hands afterwards and, like hey, that was all I had.”
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options
Posted By Press Release On August 1, 2010 @ 7:40 pm In Press Releases,Sprint Cup Series
SAM HORNISH JR (No. 77 PPG Dodge Charger) Finished 11th
“We didn’t have a very good car today, but the one thing we did have was a good car for like five laps. So, I was hoping they would have to run another 10 under yellow when it was raining. We got the most we could possibly get out of it today. The PPG Dodge was frustrating at times, just way too tight. We kept after it, kept it going straight and gave ourselves an opportunity at the end to almost get a top 10 out of it.
“This is probably one of my best tracks. I don’t know if it is the long races or what, but the first time I came here I really liked the track. It was a test and all the Cup teams were here. At the end of the day, we were seventh fastest and we didn’t do a qualifying run. When we came back for the first race, we struggled. Since then, we’ve been good. Our worst finish here in the last five races was 26th and we had to pit with 10 laps to go with a tire going down. I always feel good about coming here. If we had a car like we had the last time we were here, I think we could have won today.”
TRAVIS GEISLER (Crew Chief, PPG Dodge Charger)
“All you can do is use all the tools at your disposal for the whole race and see if you can make something work. We got the car a little better as the race went on, but we certainly weren’t as good as we wanted to be today. We came out of here with an 11th-place finish. We did what we could today and now we want to figure out what we can do on Friday and Saturday to get the car better for race day.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger) Finished 20th
“We just worked together to get in position for a top-20 finish. We made great pit stops at the end, made a couple good moves and got up to 15th, but couldn’t quite hold on and finished 20th. It wasn’t for lack of effort. We’ve got to keep working. We just need a little bit more. We’re not far off. Just a little bit would take us a long way.”
KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger) Finished 33rd
“I got wrecked on the straightaway. Jimmie Johnson drove straight through us.
“We fought a tight condition much of the race, but we still ran in the top 10. On one set of tires, the car was just really, really tight and we fell back to 16th. On that last caution, we decided to stay out for track position because everybody still had to make one more pit stop. We were running 10th and just got run over.”
STEVE ADDINGTON (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger)
“We were going to be all right I think after we had struggled with one set of tires. I think we were going to get a top-10 out of it. We put on a set of tires and the car just wouldn’t turn. We ran solid in the top eight all day until we put that set of tires on and went backwards. I don’t understand what happened there. This is not the way we wanted the day to end for all these guys that work on the Miller Lite Dodge. We’re disappointed the way it happened.”
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options
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