by Darrell Waltrip

Comment

The reason that it is difficult to predict gas mileage at Pocono is because of the variations of the track itself. For example, Turn 1 is banked while the other two turns are flat. The biggest concern you have is if you run out of gas going down the frontstretch into Turn 1. If you do that, your goose is cooked, my friend. You simply can't coast back to pit road like you can at a lot of other race tracks. With the flatness of Turns 2 and 3, you just can't carry enough speed around there to get all the way back to the pits. So you really have to play it conservative pretty much the whole race until the very end when you might have a chance to win.

You will see guys in the 10th-11th-12th area will also dive into the pits before the race goes green to top off. I have seen the difference that topping off can make. Sometimes it can steal you a win and sometimes it can get you a great finish by simply being able to go a lap or two more than the other guy. The key to Pocono is certainly gas mileage.

You have to get your car handling well too. Reason being, the better your car handles, the better your gas mileage will be. You also try to conserve fuel when the time comes as much as you can. Trust me, a driver can milk a lap or two out of his race car if his crew chief tells him soon enough. You just ease out of the throttle down those long straightaways. You don't carry it down in the corner quite as hard, back off a little early to cut the RPM's down and don't mash the throttle wide open every chance you get. Easing off the throttle and easing back onto the throttle is key to saving you a lot of fuel at a place like Pocono.

Where the rubber meets the road

I don't want to create a sense of Indianapolis déjà vu or anything, but two or three years ago we had all kind of left front tire problems at Pocono. The teams were running low left side tire pressures but then running the tires across the rumble strips in Turn 1 and then in Turn 2 over what we call the Tunnel Turn. It was tearing up the left front tire and that became an issue.

I only point it out because there is always a chance of a tire problem any place we go. Let's just hope that's not the case this weekend.

Only the strong survive

Places like Pocono are horsepower tracks. You have to have a lot of power to get down those long straightaways. We saw at Indy how much steam the Hendrick cars had under the hood. We know the Toyota's and the Roush Fenway cars generate a lot of power too. But don't discount Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler in the Dodges. People want to say that Dodge is at a disadvantage and behind with their engine technology but I sure don't see it on the race track. With this new car, the only real advantage you seem to have anymore is what is under the hood. It also seems that each manufacturer has certain tracks that they run stronger than the others do. I think there is a lot of parity under the hood right now.

Remember that this is another 500-mile race. The engine sees a lot of hanging RPM's where it stays above 9,000 down those long straightaways. Those harmonics at those high RPM's are what break parts, so watch late in the race with about 50 miles to go, because you will usually see people start to have problems at that point. It's a long race and a long afternoon of cycles that those engines have to go through.

Life in the pits

In addition to fuel strategy, these teams also will be working on a pit strategy too.

The pit road at Pocono is a great pit road. It is probably the best pit road of anywhere we go. You can come off Turn 3 really, really diggin' and you can drive almost to the entrance of pit road wide open. The pit boxes are huge and you have plenty of room in and out.

Pit strategy is also huge there. If a spotter or crew chief gets a sense that a caution might be getting ready to come out, well they want to try and get their car to pit road beforehand. You have to get in and then get out of the pits and when things cycle back through, you will be leading the pack because you stopped early. Who knows, you might have a golden opportunity pop up and land in your lap but you better be prepared to take advantage of it.

One last thing ...

The other interesting thing I have noticed is with both Pocono races' being so close together, it seems like that's the place that folks can be a repeat winner in the same year. Think about Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards or Jimmie Johnson and now Kasey Kahne has a shot of doing it from his June win there. There are just a number of drivers that have won both races in a particular year.

DW's Old school storytime

This is no joke; believe it or not, you occasionally have to watch out for deer at Pocono. Back in my day, Harold Kinder was the flagman and one day we were on the track practicing. I came off Turn 3 and headed down the front stretch and saw Harold up in the flagstand with his hands on top of his head like a pair of antlers. At the time, I really didn't understand what he was trying to tell me. But then as I was going down the backstretch, I see a deer running on the inside of the race track.

So when I came back around to the flagstand I gave Harold the thumbs up because I understood that he was trying to tell us that there was a deer on the track. But I have to tell you, I can remember it as if it were yesterday with him sticking his fingers on his head to imitate a deer. Gosh that was funny.

Here's another quick funny Harold story from Pocono because he was such a sweet man and a great friend. We were racing there and I came by the flagstand and he waved at me, so I waved back. I come around again and he waved at me and I waved back. Well the third time I come around here he was waving with both hands wanting me to do the same. Now remember folks, he's wanting me to do this in the middle of the race. So the next time by, I used my knees to hold the steering wheel straight and waved to him with both hands! I thought the man was going to fall out of the flagstand.

Oh, by the way

For heavens sake, I hope this weekend's race is one of the all time greatest races ever at Pocono. We have to get over and past the debacle of last Sunday's race. I have to be honest, I am sick about hearing about the problems at Indy. For that matter, I am sick of talking about the problems last weekend at Indy. We have to be like a race team and shake off that bad race.

A good race this weekend, with some drama and suspense and a close finish will go a long way in making that happen. Trust me, it will be good for our sport and all of us involved.