NASCAR: Pocono Raceway road course on the table for July Cup race?

After track CEO Nick Igdalsky hinted of a change, is the Pocono Raceway road course on the table to host the NASCAR Cup Series race at the track in late July?

The NASCAR Cup Series made the first of its usual two trips to Pocono Raceway in early June for the Pocono 400, and it is scheduled to make its second in late July for the Gander RV 400.

Two races have been contested each season at Pocono Raceway going all the way back to 1982, which was the ninth season during which the track appeared on the Cup Series schedule.

Since the start of the 1982 season, a total of 75 races have been contested at the three-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Pocono Raceway triangle/oval in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, and a total of 83 races have been contested there since the track was added the scheduled eight years earlier.

But could a change be on the horizon for next month’s race at the track?

According to Pocono Raceway CEO Nick Igdalsky, NASCAR and the track are currently engaged in conversations pertaining to “enhancing the competition”.

Here is what Igdalsky had to say about the matter, according to The Morning Call.

"“There’s a little something to the competition angle. Obviously, NASCAR is not going to change the package for the July race, but I can tell you we are engaged in some conversations about enhancing the competition moving into July. There’s nothing I can announce yet. Hopefully in the next week or two we get through one final hurdle and I’ll give you the full details.”"

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Could this change, assuming it doesn’t fall through, potentially be a move from the track’s oval to a variation of the track’s interior road course?

With Kyle Busch, who won the race at Pocono Raceway in June and has now won three of the last four races at the track, including the last two, complaining about the package after winning a race, you know something is up.

It’s one thing for the driver who has been known for his post-race rants and complaints to say that the package “sucked” at Dover International Speedway in early May when he only managed a 10th place finish, but him saying what he said after dominating the race at Pocono Raceway is a whole other story.

With NASCAR “not going to change the package” for the July race, what else might Igdalsky’s statement mean other than a change to the race itself?

Igdalsky has previously stated that he would be willing to change this event from an oval race into a road course race, and there has been a ton of speculation about such a change in recent years, especially with the season’s second race at Charlotte Motor Speedway having been altered from a race on the track’s oval to the track’s interior road course, or “Roval”.

Such speculation heated up after the inaugural race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval last September was one of the most exciting and unpredictable races the sport has seen in quite some time.

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When the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Pocono Raceway for the second of two races at the track in the 2019 season in late July, will the race be contested on the track’s oval as initially planned, or will it be contested on the track’s interior road course?

This race, the Gander RV 400, is scheduled to take place on Sunday, July 28, and it is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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