Taming The Tricky Triangle at Pocono            

From a NASCAR Fan’s View

The Cup teams are taking on the tricky triangle at Pocono once again, and things are different even though they are basically the same. One thing that didn’t change was the person sitting on the pole. Yeah, that’s right, Denny Hamlin took the pole position again this weekend, and it’s beginning to look like it’s becoming a habit for him.

Now, before you think I’m going to talk negatively about Denny, let me just say he is having a great year, just like his employee, Tyler Reddick. In fact. Hamlin and Reddick are just two of the Toyota drivers who are showing up just about every weekend as the ones to beat. Between them, they have eight wins. To this fan, that means the Toyotas have something going for them in terms of handling and speed.

In fact, the Toyotas as a whole are all showing the ability to run up front, whether they actually end up there at the end of a race or not. Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, and Christopher Bell, all of JGR, have all shown the ability to run up front often this season, even though those three haven’t always had the best luck when it comes down to the end of a race.

As an example of just how difficult it has been for them, take a look at what happened to Christopher Bell last weekend. He had a fast Toyota, was moving forward, and running outside of Chase Elliott when Elliott lost control, overcorrected, and put Bell hard into the wall. Elliott came away without any injury, but Bell came away with a broken wrist. Since I experienced a few severe wrecks when I was racing, I’m betting he was very sore all over for at least a couple of days or so. My body has never forgotten those wrecks.

I admit that, even though they have been running well, they have also encountered the “Bad Racing Luck” beast that often raises its ugly head often so far this season. It hasn’t just affected the Toyotas either. It has been quite equal amongst many of the different manufacturers and teams at one time or other during this 2026 season.

At least this weekend, the Toyotas aren’t totally dominating the top ten starting spots in the lineup. When I say not totally dominating, there are still five of them in the top fifteen but two of them are from the Legacy camp. There are seven Chevys and three Fords.

Although he didn’t sound all that confident about the overall balance and speed of his Chevy, Kyle Larson did qualify on the front row with Hamlin. He has been showing that the Hendrick Chevys may be finding the balance of their new Camaro body style and has been running well at times in the last several weeks. We all knew it was just a matter of time until the Hendrick camp began to zero in on making the new body style begin to work and show speed. Even though they have shown moments of speed, they are still behind the Toyotas, especially the JGR Toyotas and, of course, Tyler Reddick, even though he has had a few things go against him the last couple of races.

There are several surprises that have been showing up with speed and two of them right off the top are Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar. Both of them have won races and here at Pocono, they both might have qualified in the top five. As it stands for the start of the race, Suarez is starting third and showed a lot of speed in his qualifying lap. Carson had a good qualifying time going until he lost control and ended up qualifying twenty-sixth. Both he and his teammate, Suarez, could be pressing for the lead in the closing laps, and one of them could end up in Victory Lane at the end of the race.

Another surprise, at least to this fan, is Erik Jones. He has been running well and showing up at the end of the races as competitive, though he hasn’t pressed for the win yet.

There is no doubt that the Tricky Triangle is a tough track and will test the drivers in several ways. The first thing that comes to mind is the weather. Because NASCAR is trying to beat the predicted rain, they moved the race start time up two hours to 1 p.m. To this fan, who says there is still a possibility the race could be rain-shortened, and that could mean the racing could be a little more aggressive than usual. Well, that is for a big track like Pocono.

And then there is that rough area in the tunnel turn that has been known to challenge more than one driver and ruin their day. I’m not saying it will make a big difference in the outcome of the race, but I am expecting its impact to be felt more than once as the race progresses to the final checkered flag.

So, rather than drag this out like a race at Pocono, I have to wonder if Denny Hamlin is going to make it three in a row and take his eighth career victory at Pocono. Barring the unforeseen, it does appear he has the handle on the track and could complete more dominance on the rest of the field as he has over the last two weekends.

My last question is a simple one, and it needs your opinion. Will Kyle Larson finally win a race since it has been such a long time since his last Cup victory? Yeah… that’s the way I feel about it, too…

Hey, this is Russ and that’s my view… See ya next time…