Pocono Recap For NL
Johnson’s Bobble Brings Gordon Unlikely Pocono Victory Jimmie Johnson, for much of the day at Pocono looked primed for a second straight victory. Jeff Gordon? …
Lightning Leads to Tragedy at Pocono
NASCAR Nation is in mourning this Monday after losing one of their own, a race fan during a series of storms that turned tragic. As …
Matt McLaughlin’s Thinkin’ Out Loud: 2012 Pocono Summer Race Recap
Jimmie Johnson, who had dominated the race, had his car get out from under him on the final restart and collected second-place Matt Kenseth. From there, it was on.
Pace Laps: Pocono Tragedy, A Tiff in Trucks, and The End For a Short Track?
*NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Tragedy Mars Momentum From Pocono Finish* NASCAR Nation is in mourning this Monday after losing one of their own, a race fan during a series of storms that turned tragic. As severe weather swept through Pocono Raceway, shortly after the race was called a 41-year-old man was killed and ten injured as a series of lightning strikes hit behind the grandstands (four remained in area hospitals, one critical at press time). In a heartbeat, the smiles surrounding getting the race in on Sunday were replaced by sadness, confusion and concern as everyone tried to figure out what went wrong.
“I’m pretty sure I know which one it was,” said winner Jeff Gordon. “We were walking down pit road, the umbrellas weren’t doing any good, there was a huge, huge crack from lightning. You can tell it was very close. I mean, that’s the thing that’s going to take away from the victory, is the fact that somebody was affected by that.”
Tragedy Overshadows All For NASCAR At Pocono
Lifetime fans of racing are no strangers to tragedy. Safety advancements can only go so far when the goal is to hit a turn at 200 miles an hour; even superstars, driving towards athletic immortality, can only be one broken part from seeing it all stripped away. Dan Wheldon, Dale Earnhardt, Adam Petty… their deaths serve as glass-breaking moments, sobering reminders about how fragile life is for all of us. When fans sit in the stands, they have some faint acceptance that something horrible could happen on-track. The invocation, done every race day, serves as a subconscious reminder that the risk, however slight these days, is always there.
The Big 6: Questions Answered After the 2012 Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono
In an era where many drivers don’t know how to turn a wrench, it was a refreshing change to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. taking the bull by the horns and helping his crew when the No. 88 suffered a transmission failure. By the time his crew got to the garage from pit road, Earnhardt had the car up on jackstands on the left side and was working on the right. Although handling the jack might not seem like a big deal, it is on a couple of levels. One that a lot of drivers, including some championship-caliber ones, wouldn’t have thought to do that.
IndyCar Mid-Ohio Recap: Caution Free Once Again
*In a nutshell:* Scott Dixon and the No. 9 team won their fourth career race at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course, this time by snookering early leader Will Power on pit road. The race, which went caution-free, was the second straight caution free race of the season. Will Power led much of the early portion of the race but a slow pit stop relegated Power to a second place finish. Simon Pagenaud, Sebastian Bourdais, and James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top 5.
*Key Moment:* Will Power had the field covered for the first 56 laps of the race, but Power’s No. 12 team had a slow pit stop on lap 57 and subsequently were beat off of pit road by Dixon and the No. 9 team. Dixon made it look easy from there on out, and cruised home by leading the rest of the way en route to his second win of the year.
Mistake and Failure Prone, Hendrick Motorsports Still Conquers Pocono
When one thinks of a juggernaut in any form of sport, be it Alabama in college football, Michigan State in college basketball, or Hendrick Motorsports in NASCAR racing, the last thoughts to cross one’s mind are often about failures and mistakes. That begs a question: when a race team suffers through failures, makes countless mistakes, and still emerges as the one entity to make a cohesive statement at the Pocono Raceway this weekend, how should they be described?
Hendrick Motorsports was already the headliner entering this weekend, with fan-favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. enjoying his first points lead in nearly a decade. In addition, the team was on-message.
Nationwide Series Breakdown: U.S. Cellular 250
Oh, what a difference a week can make.
Following a late-race (and hotly-debated) black flag while leading at last weekend’s Indiana 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that relegated the championship points leader to 15th and a mere one-point standings lead over Austin Dillon, Elliott Sadler took to Iowa Speedway Saturday, August 4, with a vengeance. After starting from the pole, Sadler took the race lead from Justin Allgaier late in the going, leading 60 laps en route to his third win of the 2012 season.
“They are not taking the championship from us!” cried Sadler after crossing the line by about a second over Allgaier. He should have plenty to cheer about — following his race win and a disappointing showing from Dillon, the Richard Childress Racing driver gave himself some much-needed breathing room in the points standings, increasing his lead to 18.
Tracking the Trucks: Pennsylvania Mountains 125
*In a Nutshell:* Nelson Piquet Jr. was the class of the field all day Saturday, winning the pole and running away and hiding during a long green flag run to start the season’s shortest race. But a rash of late-race cautions left the No. 30 vulnerable on a lap 44 restart, allowing Joey Coulter to snag the lead entering turn 1 and driving off to his first career Truck Series victory. James Buescher, Piquet, Matt Crafton and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top 5.