The salad bowl of racing

Pocono is one of those tracks that you either love or hate. Me, I like the place. Especially after we took the pole in June. Team Lowe’s had two successful runs at Pocono Raceway last season, including a third place in the spring race.

It’s not known for being an easy track to drive on and if you factor in that Jimmie Johnson had never raced there before, I can see how people might be surprised with our strong finishes last season. Once again, Jimmie is looking forward to the challenges Pocono offers, with its distinctly different turns and shifting points, but he also wants to finish the race stronger than his 12th-place finish in June ... and I believe he will be.

The crew has more experience now and Jimmie has three Pocono races under his belt, which are very valuable experiences. Just like every other week this season, our main goals heading into Pocono will be to finish strong on the lead lap and contend for the win.

Team Lowe’s Racing will be taking the same Lowe’s Chevy that we won took the pole at this year’s earlier Pocono race, which just happens to be the same car that we won The Winston with and used in both races at the Long Pond facility last year.

As I mentioned before, Pocono is one of the hardest racetracks to setup and prepare a race car for. It is very different from the other longer, flat tracks we see like Indy or Homestead. It has three distinctly different turns and long straightaways that offer teams the opportunities to really open it up and get some serious speed. The cars get really stretched out during long green flag runs, so a lot of guys try and make passes right at the start heading into turn one. Trying to maximize speed and get the handling down is always a challenge, but something we did well last year.

Going back to the turns, the main problem teams have is that you can’t get the race car set-up properly for all three turns. If you have the handling down in turns one and two, 99 percent of the time, you won’t have it right in turn three, "The Tunnel" turn.

Aerodynamics will also play a role in the race car, especially with the two long straightaways. If you were to compare our Bristol car to the one we bring to Pocono, the chassis are pretty similar, but we will put different fenders and focus on getting less drag.

Keys to success at Pocono Speedway
Qualify well	Pocono is a hard track to pass on, so track position will be key.
Patience	The Pennsylvania 500 is a long race.
Focus	Concentrate on the task at hand.

Chad Knaus is the crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Hendrick Motorsports. His column will appear weekly on SI.com.

 

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