NASCAR: Why is Pocono Raceway called The Tricky Triangle?

Pocono Raceway isn’t the only NASCAR track with a nickname, but while others are more up for debate, The Tricky Triangle really is all it claims to be.

What’s in a nickname? When it comes to Pocono Raceway, quite a bit. The Tricky Triangle isn’t just a marketing slogan.

It is that, of course, but it stems from fact rather than opinion. No other NASCAR track is exactly like it, both in terms of how it’s designed and what it means for crew chiefs trying to get their drivers set up for success.

The Triangle part is pretty obvious if you get a chance to see the track layout from overhead. Pocono Raceway is a 2.5-mile track with three distinct corners and no turn 4 (hence the facility’s “What turn 4?” tag line). It’s also a pretty flat course, with turn 1 banked at 14 degrees, turn 2 at 8 degrees and turn 3 banked at just 6 degrees.

The track’s designer, Rodger Ward drew inspiration from three existing tracks for the three corners:

• Turn 1 is inspired by Trenton Speedway.
• Turn 2, also called the Tunnel Turn, is modeled on Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• Turn 3 takes its cues from the Milwaukee Mile.

Interestingly, only Indianapolis is also a NASCAR venue, and stock cars hit Pocono well before they ran at the Brickyard.

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Those varied corners are connected by straightaways of different lengths, including the longest straightaway on the current NASCAR schedule on the frontstretch. As you can probably guess, this means that it’s difficult to get cars set up to run as fast as possible for the straight sections but still handle correctly through the turns, particularly since those turns are all different from each other.

There’s also a matter of shifting, something NASCAR drivers don’t have to do at every track. They do at road courses, which is why you occasionally hear people make comparisons between driving around Pocono and the challenges they face at places like Sonoma and Watkins Glen — though they’re only turning left at the track in Pennsylvania.

In any case, next time you hear an announcer call Pocono Raceway by its nickname, you’ll know exactly why it’s called The Tricky Triangle, and why going by that label is so appropriate.