Pocono Raceway announced Tuesday the lengths for its NASCAR Cup doubleheader weekend in June.
The June 27 Cup race will be a 325 miles/130 laps.
The June 28 Cup race will be 350 miles/140 laps.
The Cup races will be shown by NBC Sports.
This marks the first time in NASCAR history that the Cup Series has held back-to-back races at the same track and on the same weekend. Prior to the change for next year, the 2.5-mile track had held Cup races on two different weekends in the same year from 1982-2019.
Also taking part in the weekend will be the ARCA Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.
Here’s the weekend schedule:
Thursday, June 25
– ARCA Menards Series practice and qualifying (times TBA)
– ARCA General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 race (80 laps / 200 miles) – at 4:15 p.m. ET
Friday, June 26
– Gander Outdoors Truck Series practice and qualifying (times TBA)
– Two NASCAR Cup practices (times TBA)
Saturday, June 27
– Xfinity Series practice (time TBA)
– NASCAR Cup qualifying (time TBA)
– NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race (60 laps / 150 miles) – 12 p.m. ET.
– NASCAR Cup Series Race No. 1 (130 laps / 325 miles) – 3 p.m. ET.
– NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Race (60 Laps / 150 Miles)
Sunday, June 28
– Xfinity Series qualifying (time TBA)
– Pocono Green 225 Xfinity Series race (90 laps / 225 miles) – 12 p.m. ET.
– NASCAR Cup 350-mile race No. 2 (140 laps / 350 miles – there will be no qualifying; the starting lineup will be set by inverting the lead-lap finishers from Saturday’s Cup race) – 3:30 p.m. ET.
NASCAR on NBC analyst and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett believes Joey Logano intentionally spun his car late in the Martinsville race after contact with the car of Denny Hamlin.
The reason in Jarrett’s mind? Logano’s spin brought out a caution that helped keep the Team Penske driver on the lead lap instead of losing two laps if he had limped into the pits under green to change tires.
“There’s no doubt in my mind he spun his car intentionally and finally in a place when he realized he had a problem, and he was going to need a caution because they were going to go a couple laps down if they had to pit under green and make this change,” Jarrett said on this week’s postrace playoff edition of the NASCAR on NBC Podcast with Nate Ryan.
After contact with Hamlin that squeezed him into the wall and left his left-rear tire flat, Logano nearly lost control of his No. 22 Ford in Turn 4.
After traveling down the frontstretch on Lap 458, the car looped in the outside lane of Turn 1 without hitting the wall or another car. That brought out a caution that allowed Logano to pit for four tires.
Logano essentially forced NASCAR to decide if his action was intentional, Jarrett said. As it turned out, NASCAR did not penalize Logano. Officials told NBC Sports that the incident wasn’t reviewed by the scoring tower.
According to ground rules provided to Cup crew chief, NASCAR officials can penalize at their discretion if they determine a driver intentionally caused a caution. There also have been postrace penalties in the past after NASCAR determined that drivers spun intentionally to cause a yellow.
“Why not put the ball in NASCAR’s court to try to decide?” Jarrett said. “It’s a ball and strike call. I’ll take it even further than that: Did the pitcher intentionally hit a batter? There’s only one person that really knows for sure if that’s the case. And in this case, there’s only one person that knows 100 percent.
“I think I know as a driver and competitor in that situation that I’d rather take my chances on NASCAR having to make that call and said I created a caution intentionally. I think that’s a one-lap penalty if you do that. That’s less than what they were going to lose if they went in under green and change tires.
“Why not put (NASCAR) in that position? They might not make that call. It might look like (Logano) was carrying too much speed and just spun.
“But there’s no doubt in my mind that he did the thing that most of us – most of as drivers – would have done in that situation. I don’t fault him at all. It’s no different than a crew chief pushing the limits of what he can get through inspection. A driver is doing the same thing. And in this case, I think he’s going to come out with a better end, whichever way the call went there.”
Logano salvaged an eighth-place finish at Martinsville that kept him in the final transfer spot for the playoffs, 14 points above the cutline. If he had pitted under green with 40 laps remaining, he likely would have finished outside the top 20.
“Now those guys that are below the cutline kind of wish that would have played out that way so that everybody’d be a lot closer to that cut line,” Jarrett said.
Noting how hard Logano raced at Dover while 24 laps down because every playoff point matters, Jarrett said Logano and crew chief Todd Gordon have skillfully maximized points while minimizing potentially negative outcomes for the No. 22 during the playoffs.
“This is four races in a row for Joey Logano and his team to make something of literally a disaster for them,” Jarrett said. “They didn’t make that much at Dover once they had that problem, but the other two races in the Round of 12, they came back and made something after getting crashed at Talladega and here again (at Martinsville), having another problem that could have put them outside the top four here, but they came back and saved that.
“He was able to keep his wits about him – which is hard to do for a driver – and drive up through the field and get something of it.”
You can listen to the NASCAR on NBC Podcast via the embed above or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play. You also can watch the podcast via the Motorsports on NBC YouTube channel.
The Cup Series and Xfinity Series return to action this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway for the middle race in their respective Round of 8 playoffs.
The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series is off this weekend. Its Round of 6 playoff wraps up next week at Phoenix.
Both Cup and Xfinity cars will carry the same size and types of tires this weekend at the 1.5-mile high-speed oval. There will be one distinction – the left side tires will be different than the left side rubber that was raced at Texas back in late March.
Texas underwent a repave before the 2017 season. As a result, tire wear “poses several challenges,” according to Goodyear:
* Fresh asphalt has a lot of grip, which generates a lot of speed and heat in the tires.
* A new surface is relatively smooth and doesn’t allow tires to shed rubber, which could also cause heat problems.
* Because little rubber gets worked into the track, it is harder to create multiple racing grooves.
* The left-side tires feature a construction update similar to what has already been used at several tracks this season including Kansas, Kentucky, Las Vegas and Michigan.
As a result, Goodyear has designed right-side tires to wear more and run cooler. In addition, because the bottom lane is the preferred groove, the traction compound PJ1 will be applied above the bottom lane to create a viable second lane/groove.
Here is the tire information for this weekend’s races at Texas:
Tire: Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radials
Set limits: 3 sets for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 10 sets for the race (9 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying or practice); Xfinity: 7 sets for the event.
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-4954; Right-side – D-4796.
Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,225 mm (87.60 in.); Right-side – 2,251 mm (88.62 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 22 psi; Left Rear — 22 psi; Right Front — 52 psi; Right Rear — 50 psi
Notes: As on all NASCAR ovals greater than 1 mile in length, teams are required to run liners in all four tire positions at Texas. … Air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
Weather: According to wunderground.com, the forecast for Saturday night’s Xfinity race calls for a temperature of 52 degrees with a 0% chance of rain at the scheduled 8:30 p.m. ET start time (on NBCSN), and a temperature of 59 degrees with a 0% chance of rain at the scheduled 3 p.m. ET start time for Sunday’s Cup race on NBCSN.
The pressure builds for Xfinity and Cup playoff drivers as they each enter the middle race of the Round of 8 this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET Sunday on NBCSN).
Martin Truex Jr.‘s win last weekend at Martinsville moved him into the Championship 4 race in Miami, leaving three spots left for the Cup title battle.
Since a playoff driver didn’t win at Kansas Speedway two weeks ago in the Xfinity Series, two of the Championship 4 spots will be based on points.
Here are the preliminary entry list for both series:
Cup – AAA Texas 500 (3 p.m. ET Sunday on NBCSN)
Forty cars are entered.
John Hunter Nemechek makes his Cup debut, driving the No. 36 Ford for Front Row Motorsports with Matt Tifft out the rest of the season after suffering a seizure last weekend at Martinsville.
NASCAR on NBC analyst Parker Kligerman is in the No. 96 Toyota for Gaunt Brothers Racing for his 14th start of the season.
Quin Houff is back in the No. 77 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports for the first time since Richmond in September. This will be his 17th start of the season.
Xfinity – O’Reilly Auto Pats 300 (8:30 p.m. ET Saturday on NBCSN)
Thirty-eight cars are entered.
Harrison Burton, who will drive full time in the Xfinity Series in 2020, will make his eighth start of the season in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota.
Bobby Earnhardt will make his second start of the season. He’ll be in the No. 66 Toyota for the Motorsports Business Management team.
Matt Tifft will not race the rest of the season after suffering a seizure Saturday at Martinsville Speedway, he stated in a Twitter video Tuesday.
Tifft will continue to consult with his doctors and work with the NASCAR medical team to return to racing as soon as possible, Front Row Motorsports stated.
John Hunter Nemechek will drive the No. 36 Ford in place of Tifft the remaining three Cup races of the season.
Tifft was taken to the infield care center shortly before Cup practice Saturday at Martinsville Speedway and transported to a local hospital. He was later released and went home. Matt Crafton drove for him Sunday at Martinsville.
Tifft said in a Twitter video posted Tuesday that he was feeling fine Saturday at Martinsville and then “felt my tongue cramp up. Next thing I knew I blacked out and my crew members helped me down. Next thing I knew I woke up in the ambulance getting transported to a local hospital. I was actually out of the race because I suffered a seizure this weekend.
“Luckily, my test results with the CT scan and my MRI today on Monday showed that there’s nothing there as far as my brain tumor. Trying to find out some answers of what exactly is going on.”
He had surgery to remove a tumor in his brain on July 21, 2016. He returned to NASCAR in September 2016, competing in a Truck race at Chicagoland Speedway. Tifft has had no issues since the surgery.
He announced Jan. 9 that his recovery had gone so well that he would not have to undergo a routine followup brain scan for at least a year.
Tifft also added in his Twitter video posted Tuesday: “Appreciate your guys’ support and certainly will let you guys know as I learn more too. Unfortunately, because of this I will be missing the rest of the 2019 season. So I want to wish Front Row Motorsports and the whole 36 team the best of luck the rest of this year. Hate that I have to miss out the rest of my rookie season. The most important thing right now is my health and figuring out what is going on.”
With Tifft out, Nemechek will make his Cup debut this weekend at Texas (3 p.m. ET Sunday on NBCSN).
“This isn’t the way any driver wants to make their Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut,” said Nemechek in a statement from the team. “I am hoping that Matt feels better and can get back in his car as soon as possible. That is what is important. Hopefully I can learn a lot and make Matt, the Front Row Motorsports team and its partners proud.”
The 22-year-old Nemechek is completing his first full season in the Xfinity Series, driving for GMS Racing.
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