Race Weekend Central

Pocono Raceway Announces Same-Day NASCAR Qualifying, Race Format

Add Pocono Raceway to the list of 2017 NASCAR experiments. Its July race is moving to a single-day format, making the event more cost efficient for both teams and spectators alike.

The 2.5-mile, triangular track announced Monday they’ll hold Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying as well as the race Sunday for their second race weekend of the summer from July 28-30. The Friday of that weekend will now be a “FanFest” event for Cup drivers while only practice will be held for the cars that Saturday.

The racetrack sent out a tweet confirming the move for the Cup Series. The ARCA race for that weekend will run Friday while the Camping World Truck Series event remains on Saturday afternoon.

The Tricky Triangle’s first race weekend, from June 9-11, will have a more traditional weekend schedule, with MENCS qualifying on Friday afternoon and the race taking place on Sunday.

Kurt Busch won the first race of the summer last season at Pocono while rookie Chris Buescher pulled the upset in the July event. Pocono remains one of the last independently-owned tracks in NASCAR along with Indianapolis and the Monster Mile in Dover.

About the author

Davey is in his fifth season with Frontstretch and currently serves as a multimedia editor and reporter. He authors the "NASCAR Mailbox" column, spearheads the site's video content and hosts the Frontstretch Podcast weekly. He's covered the K&N Pro Series and ARCA extensively for NASCAR.com and currently serves as an associate producer for SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and production assistant for NBC Sports Washington. Follow him on Twitter @DaveyCenter.

Sign up for the Frontstretch Newsletter

A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.

4 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
DoninAjax

Do the fans have to leave the stands after qualifying so the track can sell two tickets for the day? Like a day-day doubleheader?

Josh

That’s a neat idea. Friday is a fan driver day then everything on track is Saturday. I know if I was camping I wouldn’t be rolling in Thursday night. It’d be a Friday night arrival for me.

Biff Baynehouse

No brainer & they [Nascar, as well as Indycar & perhaps even F1] need to do MUCH more to modernize their race weekend schedules. For starters, Nascar needs to quit with the bloated & useless 3 – 1 hour or longer practices. Cut them to 3 at 20 minutes! They need to steal more ideas from V8 Supercar. Nascar’s “charter” system is a version of V8SC’s “REC” (racing entitlement certificate) program, which began in ’99. Nascar’s moronic “stages” are a sophomoric twist on V8SC’s “super-sprint” format, where by the main series typically runs TWO, sometimes THREE individual points races per weekend. And, including all undercard series, they run over TWENTY RACES in per weekend.
Take a look at this America, & realize how devoid of value Nascar weekends really are & why it is easy to drop them like a bad habit. Clipsal 500 schedule, Adelaide, March 02 – 05: Thursday
08:05 – 08:25 Improved Production – Practice, 20 mins
08:40 – 09:00 Aussie Racing Cars – Practice, 20 mins
09:15 – 09:55 Dunlop Series – Practice 1, 40 mins
10:10 – 10:30 Touring Car Masters – Practice 1, 20 mins
10:45 – 11:05 Australian GT – Practice 1, 20 mins
11:20 – 11:40 Improved Production – Qualifying, 20 mins
11:55 – 12:15 Stadium Trucks – Practice/Qualifying, 20 mins
12:30 – 12:50 Porsche Cup- Practice 1, 20 mins
13:05 – 13:25 Touring Car Masters – Practice 2, 20 mins
13:40 – 14:00 Australian GT – Practice 2, 20 mins
14:15 – 14:45 Dunlop Series – Practice 2, 30 mins
15:00 – 15:20 Aussie Racing Cars – Qualifying, 20 mins
15:35 – 15:55 Porsche Cup – Practice 2, 20 mins
16:10 – 16:30 Touring Car Masters – Qualifying, 20 mins
16:45 – 17:05 Australian GT – Qualifying, 20 mins
17:20 – 17:35 Improved Production – RACE 1, 7 laps
17:50 – 18:05 Aussie Racing Cars – RACE 1, 7 laps
18:20 – 18:40 Stadium Trucks – RACE 1, 8 laps
Friday
08:30 – 08:50 Porsche Cup – Qualifying 1, 20 mins
09:05 – 09:25 Improved Production – RACE 2, 7 laps
09:40 – 10:20 V8 Supercar – Practice 1, 40 mins
10:35 – 11:15 Australian GT – RACE 1, 40 mins
11:30 – 12:10 V8 Supercar – Practice 2, 40 mins
12:45 – 13:05 Stadium Trucks – RACE 2, 8 laps
13:20 – 13:40 Dunlop Series – Qualifying, 20 mins
13:55 – 14:15 Touring Car Masters – RACE 1, 12 laps
14:30 – 14:50 V8 Supercar – Qualifying, 20 mins
15:05 – 15:35 Porsche Cup – RACE 1, 20 laps
15:50 – 16:10 Aussie Racing Cars – RACE 2, 11 laps
16:25 – 16:55 Dunlop Series – RACE 1, 19 laps
Saturday
08:00 – 08:20 Improved Production – RACE 3, 7 laps
08:35 – 08:55 Aussie Racing Cars – RACE 3, 11 laps
09:10 – 09:50 Australian GT – RACE 2, 40 mins
10:05 – 10:25 V8 Supercar – Practice 3, 20 mins
10:40 – 11:00 Touring Car Masters – RACE 2, 12 laps
11:15 – 11:45 Dunlop Series – RACE 2, 19 laps
12:00 – 12:30 V8 Supercar – Top 10 Shootout, 1 laps
13:30 – 13:50 Stadium Trucks – RACE 3, 8 laps
14:05 – 14:35 Porsche Cup – RACE 2, 20 laps
15:20 – 17:20 V8 Supercar – RACE 1 – 250kms, 78 laps
Sunday
08:45 – 09:05 Aussie Racing Cars – RACE 4, 7 laps
09:20 – 09:40 V8 Supercar ARMOR ALL – Qualifying, 20 mins
09:55 – 10:35 Australian GT – RACE 3, 40 mins
10:50 – 11:10 Touring Car Masters – RACE 3, 12 laps
11:25 – 11:55 Dunlop Series – RACE 3, 19 laps
12:10 – 12:40 V8 Supercar – Top 10 Shootout, 1 laps
13:30 – 14:00 Porsche Cup – RACE 3, 20 laps
14:15 – 14:35 Stadium Trucks – RACE 4, 8 laps
15:20 – 17:20 V8 Supercar – RACE 2 – 250kms, 78 laps

rg72

This is great except for one thing. What track has had numerous races moved to Monday or shortened/delayed/interrupted to some extent because of bad weather? This one. It is the poster child for the stupidity of scheduling the start of races after 3 p.m. (3 in NASCAR means closer to 3:30) in the East at tracks without lights. Anything more than drizzle or a brief shower during the race will almost guarantee a Monday race or one those riveting hope we get to the “official” lap affairs.

Share via