When Dale Earnhardt Jr. won both races at Pocono Raceway last year, he became the seventh driver to sweep the two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events at the 2.5-mile triangular track since 1982.
That’s when the series started to come to Long Pond twice a season.
Earnhardt joined Bobby Allison (1982), Bill Elliott (1985), the late Tim Richmond (1986), Bobby Labonte (1999), Jimmie Johnson (2004) and Denny Hamlin (2006) as drivers who accomplished the feat.
However, only two of those drivers — Allison and Richmond — were able to make it three wins in a row.
This weekend, Earnhardt seeks to make it three straight at Pocono in the Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400.
“We’re going in with good expectations,” Earnhardt said. “When we won last year, that was the first time we ever won at Pocono. It was a great feeling to finally win there because I’ve been going to that track as a kid in the summertime for years. I had no idea we were going to sweep. It was a big surprise.”
The two wins came in varying fashion.
In the first race, Earnhardt got a bit lucky. A piece of debris stuck to the grill of leader Brad Keselowski’s car, causing the engine temperature to rise to a dangerous level. When Keselowski slowed behind another car, hoping the debris would dislodge itself, Earnhardt passed him with five laps to go.
For the second race, Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevrolet was fast, but used a strategic call by then-crew chief Steve Letarte to gain track position. Earnhardt passed Greg Biffle for the lead with 14 laps remaining, then withstood a restart with three laps to go to complete the sweep.
To win one race at Pocono is hard enough, Earnhardt said, let alone two.
“You get that track position late in the race and it’s hard to get around the leader,” he said. “You’re not going to drive from eighth into the lead and win the race on the last restart. You’ve got to be up toward the front and just try to position yourself there the whole race. It’s a real, real challenge.
“And, you’ve got to run hard. You can’t really give and take like you do at a lot of race tracks. You can’t afford to let a guy by at that particular track because it’s so hard to get back by him.”
Through 13 races this season, Earnhardt has one victory — at Talladega five weeks ago. That was his first win with crew chief Greg Ives, who took over for Letarte this season.
It also likely qualified Earnhardt for the Chase for the Sprint Cup over the season’s final 10 races. He ranks fifth in the standings with 432 points, 84 behind leader Kevin Harvick.
With a berth in the Chase all but assured, Earnhardt has the luxury of being able to take chances and be more aggressive. That could help him in his bid for a third straight Pocono win.
“We won last year (at Pocono), so you go in real happy and excited and expect to be even better,” he said. “I think our cars are faster this year than they were last year every week. So I hope the trend stays there.”
Practice for the Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 is scheduled from noon to 1:25 p.m. today. Qualifying will be held at 4:45 p.m. The knockout format will be in use again. All cars participate in the opening 20-minute session with the top 24 advancing to the 10-minute second session. The top 12 from there move on to the five-minute final session which will determine the pole winner.
This season, Joey Logano leads all drivers with four poles (Atlanta, Martinsville, Richmond, Kansas). Jeff Gordon has three (Daytona, Las Vegas, Talladega), while Kurt Busch (Fontana, Texas) and Matt Kenseth (Bristol, Charlotte) have two each. Harvick (Phoenix) and Denny Hamlin (Dover) also have won poles this season.
Kyle Larson set the qualifying record at Pocono last August with a pole-winning speed of 183.438 mph.
Sunday’s Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono is set to get the green flag shortly after 1 p.m.