NASCAR: Will 2019 Pocono 400 break all-time pole-to-win drought record?
By Asher Fair
Will the Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway result in the all-time NASCAR Cup Series pole-to-win drought record being broken, or will the race polesitter prevent that?
Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron had a chance to prevent the all-time NASCAR Cup Series pole-to-win drought record from being tied in last Sunday’s race, the Coca-Cola 600, at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Byron took the pole position for this 400-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Charlotte Motor Speedway oval in Concord, North Carolina in his #24 Chevrolet. As a result, he had a chance to become the first polesitter to win a race since Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. won the race at Kentucky Speedway on the night of Saturday, July 14, 2018.
From Truex Jr. winning this race to Byron taking the pole position for this year’s Coca-Cola 600, a total of 29 races had been contested, and polesitters had not won any of them.
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Entering this race, the all-time record for consecutive races without a polesitter winning was 30, which was set in 2012 season. When he won the 2012 season’s 14th race at Pocono Raceway, Joey Logano became the first polesitter to win a race since Ryan Newman won the 2011 season’s 19th race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Byron ended up finishing the Coca-Cola 600 in ninth place, so the active streak of races without a polesitter winning sits at 30, which is tied for the all-time record, as the series heads to the track where the sport’s first 30-race pole-to-win drought came to an end.
Will the active 30-race pole-to-win drought come to an end in tomorrow afternoon’s race, the Pocono 400, at Pocono Raceway? Just one of the last 11 races at the track has been won by the polesitter, so the chances of this drought coming to an end in this race don’t appear to be all that great.
Qualifying for this 160-lap race around the three-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Pocono Raceway triangle in Long Pond, Pennsylvania is scheduled to take place later this morning at 11:35 a.m. ET, and it is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1.
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Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 2:00 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway to see whether or not the race polesitter prevent the active NASCAR Cup Series pole-to-win drought from becoming the longest pole-to-win drought in Cup Series history.