Pocono Raceway 2025 NASCAR Track Profile

[Editor’s note: The following article is from Athlon Sports’ 2025 Racing Annual magazine. Order your copy online today, or buy one at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]

Pocono Raceway is an odd racetrack. The 2.5-mile “oval” is kind of a superspeedway because of its size and speed. But it also resembles a road course with three corners being wildly different: Turn 1 is modeled after the now-defunct Trenton Speedway; Turn 2 after Indianapolis Motor Speedway; and Turn 3 after the Milwaukee Mile. A tricky triangle, indeed.

Ryan Blaney picked up his second career Pocono win in 2024, beating the best driver in the track’s history, Denny Hamlin, by 1.312 seconds. Still, Hamlin is the King of the Poconos, posting the most all-time wins (7) of any driver in NASCAR. With four more top 5s, he will tie Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin for the most all time (20), and his 858 laps led are second only to Gordon’s 1,040. And remember, Hamlin was disqualified after winning in 2022 or his totals would be even higher.

Joining Hamlin and Blaney as the only active multi-time Pocono winner is Kyle Busch with four. However, Busch has not finished inside the top 20 at Pocono since joining Richard Childress Racing. Of note, Busch finished second here in the Next Gen car, with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2022, but was disqualified along with Hamlin. The 63 laps he led in that event give him the most in the Next Gen era while Hamlin and William Byron are close behind with 61 and 60, respectively.

Byron has the highest-average finish (9.4) among active drivers thanks to his three top 5s and six top 10s in 11 starts. In the three Next Gen races, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott have finished top 10 each time. Reddick has two runner-up results, including one to Elliott in 2022 (the beneficiary of the Hamlin-Busch DQs).

Pocono Raceway track info

Site: Long Pond, Pennsylvania

Laps: 2.5-mile tri-oval

Banking/Turn 1: 14 degrees

Banking/Turn 2: 8 degrees

Banking/Turn 3: 6 degrees

2025 Date: June 22

Distance: 160 laps, 400 miles

2024 winner

Ryan Blaney

Scouting report

It’s a cliché at this point, but Pocono is called the Tricky Triangle because it quite literally is. The three drastically different corners, which are the basis for its nickname, require a different setup for each. Teams pick a corner to be their best and compensate for the others around that strategy. It’s generally considered a driver’s track, and having a Pocono win on the resume is considered a point of pride.