LONG POND, Pa. – Pocono is truly one of a kind.
The Tricky Triangle earns its name from the three distinct corners that bear no resemblance to each other. Turn 1 is tight, but banked. Turn 2 is a sweeping corner that’s deceptively difficult, and Turn 3 is a flat corner that sets up a run down the longest straightaway in NASCAR racing.
So is it better to set a car up for one particular corner or to try to achieve a balance that gives up something – but not too much – in each of the three?
“I feel like there’s compromise on the whole track, not just the three corners,” says Grant Enfinger, who will make his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at Pocono after eight races in an ARCA car. “There are certain times that you can do something that helps you through the corners there – gets you off of Turn 3 a little bit better – but it hurts you on the straightaway. These trucks are really, really draggy.
“There’s compromise over the whole track. Turn 1 has a lot of banking that’ll hold you a little bit. The Tunnel Turn (Turn 2) is its own animal, and Turn 3 is really, really flat, so it’s definitely a compromise over the whole track.”
A contender for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, Enfinger is driving the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Toyota. In his eight ARCA starts, he posted a victory, two runner-up finishes and seven top 10s – for an average result of 6.9.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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