NASCAR race at Pocono: Remembering last year’s impactful weekend, how to watch, more

NASCAR’s premier series has another date with The Tricky Triangle.

The Cup Series descends on Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Penn., at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday for the first and only time in 2023. The race around the three-turn, 2.5-mile track will be broadcast on USA Network (TV), MRN (radio), the NBC Sports App and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).

From last year’s impact to this year’s playoff chase — here’s what you should know before Sunday’s green flag.

4 storylines before Pocono

▪ Remembering last year — and remembering Kurt Busch. It’s strange to think that it’s been a year since Kurt Busch, the older brother of Kyle Busch and the 2004 Cup Series champion, has run in a Cup car. But it’s true. It was at The Tricky Triangle on this weekend in July last year when Kurt Busch spun out in qualifying, knocked his right-rear quarter panel into the fence and sustained a brain injury he couldn’t recover from.

Over the course of the next few months after Pocono last season, so many dominoes would fall: Busch would withdraw from the playoffs. He’d offer a teary retirement speech in Las Vegas, paving the way for Tyler Reddick to come to 23XI Racing a year early. But perhaps most important, the injury would be a moment drivers and other industry leaders would turn and point to when evaluating the safety of the Next Gen car — a storyline that still has some mileage considering a Cup driver, Noah Gragson, suffered a concussion after a crash earlier this year.

Busch is enjoying life as an advisor for 23XI Racing. But he’s also made it clear that he has missed being behind the wheel. Speaking in the FOX broadcast booth in March when Reddick sailed to a win at Circuit of the Americas — driving the 45 car for 23XI — Busch offered an end-of-race call through tears: “It’s amazing, 23XI, just how fast we’re growing and how much we’re doing it together,” he said. “It gets me choked up. I was hoping to be back in that car. But it’s in good hands. It’s in great hands. And I love racing with those guys.”

▪ Can Chase Elliott cash in a bit of luck here — like he did last year? If you look at the summer stretch for Elliott in 2022, you see five straight race weekends with finishes in the Top 2 — a period punctuated by a win at Pocono. But those who watched last year’s race remember that Elliott actually crossed the finish line third. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch ended the race P1 and P2, but their cars each failed post-race inspection and had their finishes revoked. That delivered another win for Elliott en route to a regular season points championship and a run to the Championship 4.

The question now: Can Elliott benefit from similar luck in Lake Pond this year? The sport’s most popular driver — after missing a handful of weeks at the beginning of the year because of an injury and serving a one-race suspension after Charlotte — is dangerously close to missing the playoffs this season. He sits 23rd in the points standings and 60 points behind the 16th-placed car, Michael McDowell.

It looks like he’ll have to win his way into postseason contention — but with only six regular-season races to go, and with only three Top 3 finishes in 13 starts, will he be able to do it?

▪ Who do bettors expect to win? If last year’s race results are of any indication — and if current trends persist — Toyota should expect to have another big week. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. opened as the odds-on favorite (11-2) to win at Pocono after a dominant performance on Monday at New Hampshire. He’s followed by Kyle Busch (11-2), Denny Hamlin (11-2) and Kyle Larson (15-2). (An Elliott victory opened at 12-1.)

It’s worth noting that Hamlin is tied for most wins at Pocono with Jeff Gordon with six victories at The Tricky Triangle. Nine other active race winners will be in contention this weekend, too. Those drivers include Kyle Busch with four wins, Truex with two wins and seven others — including Elliott, Alex Bowman, Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski (all of whom are on the proverbial playoff bubble) — with one win apiece.

▪ Justin Haley will have a new home in 2024. The 24-year-old driver who almost pulled out a win in Chicago will sign with Rick Ware Racing, the team announced Thursday. The move is a big push for Rick Ware Racing to be consistently competitive, considering Haley has driven full-time for Kaulig Racing at the Cup level since 2022 and has won at the Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series levels. Rick Ware Racing ran two Cup cars in 2023 — one of whom was driver Cody Ware, who was indefinitely suspended by NASCAR earlier this year.

TV info, purse, details for NASCAR race at Pocono

• Race: HighPoint.com 400

• Place: Pocono Raceway

• Date: Sunday, July 23

• Time: 2:30 p.m.

• Purse: $7,243,361

• TV: USA, 2 p.m. ET

• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

• Distance: 400 miles (160 Laps)

• Stages: Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 30), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 95), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 160)