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Pocono loses two weekends, 625 miles of NASCAR, IndyCar racing in 2020

By Asher Fair

LONG POND, PENNSYLVANIA - JULY 28: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 28, 2019 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
LONG POND, PENNSYLVANIA - JULY 28: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 28, 2019 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /
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Pocono Raceway has lost two of its three weekends and 625 of its usual 1,300 miles of NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar competition in 2020.

Since IndyCar returned to Pocono Raceway in the 2013 season, the Tricky Triangle has hosted three NASCAR and IndyCar race weekends each year.

But Richmond Raceway is slated to replace Pocono Raceway on the 2020 IndyCar schedule, and Pocono Raceway is set to host a NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader as opposed to two separate race weekends.

It hasn’t hosted just one Cup Series race weekend since the 1981 when it hosted just one race for the eighth consecutive season following its addition to the schedule in 1974.

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Additionally, both races of the doubleheader are set to be reduced in length from 400 miles, the scheduled distance of each of the 16 races that have been contested at the track since the 2012 season, to 325 and 350 miles.

In total, the three-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Pocono Raceway triangle in Long Pond, Pennsylvania is set to lose two of its three weekends and 625 of its usual 1,300 miles of Cup Series and IndyCar competition next year, and there are rumors that the new mileage total of 675 could be lessened to an even greater extent in 2021. Pocono Raceway is not guaranteed to host two races for what would be the 40th consecutive season in 2021 with major schedule changes in the works.

The doubleheader is nothing more than an experiment. It could prove to be a massive success, or it could be a flop. Even if it is the former, it could simply be utilized at other tracks in 2021 and beyond, not necessarily Pocono Raceway.

Fortunately for the Tricky Triangle, the Cup Series doubleheader weekend at the track is still scheduled to feature an ARCA Menards Series race, a Truck Series race and an Xfinity Series race as well.

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The two races of the NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader at Pocono Raceway are scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28. Ironically, the IndyCar race at Richmond Raceway is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 27 even though the race it replaced at Pocono Raceway had taken place in August for five consecutive seasons.

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