2023 HighPoint.com 400 Preview
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The NASCAR Cup Series will head to the “Tricky Triangle” this weekend for their annual race at Pocono Raceway. Last year’s race had some exciting moments including the incident between Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain near the end of the race. Then, the drama continued into post-race inspection where Denny Hamlin, the winner, and Kyle Busch, the runner-up, were both disqualified which handed the win over to the third place finisher, Chase Elliott. There should be some more thrilling moments at the 2.5 mile track this year and here are some drivers to watch for Sunday’s 400 mile event.
Last weekend was a rough outing for the #8 team at New Hampshire which ended an impressive streak of top ten finishes. The good thing for Kyle Busch is that he is coming to a track where he has had lots of success in recent memory. Busch has taken the checkered flag at Pocono in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021 so hopefully he can keep his primary car clean in practice and qualifying so he can start near the front of the field. After the disqualifications last year, Tyler Reddick finished second in the same car Busch is driving this season so clearly both the driver and team have the talent to get their fourth win of the season which would help their chances of catching Martin Truex Jr to win the regular season championship.
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Another driver who has done a lot of winning at Pocono is Denny Hamlin, as he has six wins in total during his career and would have had seven last summer if his car passed post-race inspection. Hamlin has had a consistent season thus far despite only winning one race back at Kansas in early May. Like Busch, Hamlin is another driver that is within reach of the regular season championship, as he trails his teammate by 66 points so a win on Sunday would add to his playoff points total and get him closer to first place in the standings. I like Hamlin’s chances because of his history at the track and Toyota as a whole brings fast cars to the track every year so he should be a threat to redeem his disqualification from last year.
One driver who has been solid at Pocono but has not found Victory Lane yet at the track is Kyle Larson. Larson came as close as you could get to a win back in 2021 during the first race of the doubleheader that year, as he cut a left front tire down entering the final turn on the final lap of the race. His #5 car then hit the wall which led to Larson's teammate Alex Bowman sneaking by to get the win instead. Last year, Larson finished fifth after leading 18 laps and winning the first stage of the race so it would not surprise me if Larson was the driver getting redemption this Sunday after previously coming up short at Pocono.
So far, I have mentioned a couple of drivers who are trying to hunt down the leader in the point standings but now it is time to talk about the points leader himself, Martin Truex Jr. Truex took the points lead away from William Byron last Monday after dominating most of the race at New Hampshire, capturing his first career win at the track. Now, Truex is coming into Pocono with a lot of momentum and he has also won at this track twice before in his career back in 2015 and 2018. The difference between Truex and Byron is only 17 points coming into the race but this should be a great chance for MTJ to expand the gap even further and have a stranglehold on first place heading into August.
All the drivers I have talked about so far have won already this season and locked themselves into the playoffs. Daniel Suarez on the other hand, is in a dog fight for the last two playoff spots, as he trails Bubba Wallace by two points for 15th and Michael McDowell by only one point for 16th. Pocono has been a place where Suarez has come close to victory, finishing third in last year's race and second back in 2018 after winning the pole for that race. In order to avoid the drama that comes with fighting for the last playoff spots, you have to be able to win a race and these next few races are prime opportunities for Suarez to get it done as not only Pocono is a good track for him but he is also a solid road course racer so Indianapolis and Watkins Glen should also be circled on the calendar by the #99 team.
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I see the Toyotas and Chevys controlling this race as Ford struggled as a whole in last year's race with Michael McDowell being the highest finishing Ford, coming in seventh place. McDowell was the only Ford in the top ten as the next best finishing Ford was Aric Almirola back in 13th so it could possibly be a disappointing day for Penske, RFK, and other teams that run blue ovals.
After a long stretch of races affected by rain, the forecast is looking good for this weekend in the Pocono Mountains so the crowd at the track on Sunday should be large as usual as they will witness the best drivers in NASCAR take on the unique and challenging Pocono Raceway.
