NASCAR’s Best Hunting For First Win At Pocono

NASCAR’s Best Hunting For First Win At Pocono

What do Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have in common?
Answer: All are winless at Pocono Raceway.
Martin, who’ll make his 53rd Pocono start on Sunday, posted his seventh second-place finish in last year’s spring race. That set an unfortunate record – most runner-up finishes at a single track without a win. Martin’s first Pocono visit came in 1982.
Kenseth was unable to conquer Pocono as a Roush Fenway Racing driver. An 0-for-26 drought could end this weekend as Kenseth – already a three-time winner in 2013 – drives the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. JGR cars have visited Pocono’s Victory Lane nine times.
The JGR connection hasn’t helped Busch master the 2.5-mile Pennsylvania layout. Busch has four DNFs – three by accident – in 12 trips to Pocono, where his average finish is 19.2. Busch has been second twice but failed to finish either race a year ago. His 63 laps led are second fewest (to Indianapolis) on a series track.
Harvick’s Pocono drought is a head scratcher. He’s working a streak of 16 consecutive lead-lap finishes and 21 overall, the latter number the Bakersfield, Calif., veteran’s best on a series track. His team, Richard Childress Racing, last won at Pocono with Dale Earnhardt in 1993.
Earnhardt Jr. won a pole and finished second in his final start with Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2007. His modest string of three top-10 finishes – Junior’s best with Hendrick Motorsports – ended with last summer’s 32nd-place finish in a weather-shortened event won by teammate Jeff Gordon. Earnhardt, however, led both Pocono races a year ago, the first time he’d led back-to-back events at the track since 2003.

At Midpoint, Stats Tell First-Half Story

It’s been quite the first half, with an abundance of competition statistics that illustrate the Gen-6 race car’s debut.
Speed thrills, and it’s a standout characteristic of the Gen-6 car in its debut season – seven track qualifying records have been set thus far.
Tight finishes have been the norm. Over the first 13 races, there has been an average margin of victory of .893 seconds, which is only the fourth time since the inception of electronic timing and scoring in 1993 that the average MOV has been under a second through 13 events.
Two statistics in particular highlight the Gen-6 race car’s ability to level the playing field – lead lap finishes and cars running at the finish. This season, 46.3% of the cars have finished on the lead lap, compared to 38.6% through 13 races in 2012. Through the first half, 81.2% of the cars have been running at the finish, the highest total through 13 races since 2009.
Passing figures have increased at a number of venues during the first half, most notably at intermediate tracks. At Las Vegas Motor Speedway, there were 31 green flag passes for the lead, a new track best since the inception of Loop Data in 2005. At Auto Club Speedway, there were 41 green flag passes for the lead, which tied a track record. The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway saw 35 passes for the lead, which tied a race best.
And last Sunday’s race at Dover featured 25 passes for the lead, which set a track Loop Data record.

First Time’s A Charm: Tricky Triangle Kind To Rookies

Pocono Raceway defies logic. Its three-turn dilemma screams growing pains. Yet, that’s not the case for some. Often, first-timers fare just fine.
Take Denny Hamlin, the prime example in rookie success at Pocono. In 2006, Hamlin’s rookie season, he swept the Pocono races – winning each from the Coors Light Pole. In the first, he led 83 laps. In the second: 151.
Or sample Carl Edwards’ Pocono debut. In 2005, Edwards had already collected his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He entered Pocono with that one win, and marched his way through the field to win in his first Pocono start after starting 29th.
So, that might give some hope to Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Danica Patrick, neither of whom have raced at Pocono.
Patrick turned laps at Pocono last week during a test session and looks to become the first female to score a top-10 finish there in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Janet Guthrie is the only female to race in the Sprint Cup series, with a top finish of 11th in three starts.
Stenhouse, who has finished in the top 20 in each of the last six races but has yet to score his first career top-10 finish, leads the rookie standings by four points over Patrick.

NSCS, Etc.

Jeff Gordon notched his 301st top-five finish at Dover, tying David Pearson for third on the all-time list. Gordon has 18 top fives at Pocono, which ranks second all-time at the Tricky Triangle. Mark Martin stands first, with 20 Pocono top fives. … With his 99th top-five finish last Sunday, Kyle Busch aims to become the 35th driver to reach 100 career top fives this weekend at Pocono.