Texas (Trucks) and Pocono (Cup) are next on the calendar. Texas will surely have its insanity, unless the NASCAR Truck racers are too passive and shy, or if Mother Nature wants to have her say on screwing up the race. Pocono has always been a very curious track. What Turn 4? I always like to think of Pocono as a road course, though it is a tri-oval. Pocono does have its own infield road course. "NASCAR America" on NBCSN had Parker Kligerman talk about taking on Pocono's three corners including when to shift around the course. Using that iRacing simulator around Pocono, I think Parker talked about not shifting until deep into Turn 1. Some oval courses are a bit complex in how you race them that you have to do some shifting in the corners. Like I can remember Champ Car and Indy Car racing tracks like Gateway and Motegi, both of which have had racers make a few shifts to keep their speed up. Pocono is always fascinating to see being raced.
One other note I wanted to make was on when NASCAR races at Chicagoland. I think what gives Chicagoland its appeal is how the track isn't exactly straight all the way around. You have to do a little extra steering around the backstretch there. It isn't just a straight back stretch at Chicagoland. So it isn't exactly a "cookie-cutter" oval, because if it was, it would probably bave a layout and a style similar to Charlotte or Texas or someplace.
Good luck to all drivers and teams competing this weekend across all levels of NASCAR.
