Pocono ready if NASCAR wants road course

Nick Igdalsky (L)

Pocono Raceway CEO Nick Igdalsky kept a watchful eye on NASCAR’s first trip to the Charlotte Motor Speedway “roval" on Sept. 30.

Igdalsky, a road-racing enthusiast himself, knew that the sanctioning body’s endeavor into a part-oval, part-road-course facility might have further implications for his Long Pond racetrack.

Pocono currently hosts two NASCAR Cup Series dates per year, each of which are run on the primary 2½-mile triangular layout. But a July report from The Times Tribune in Scranton noted Igdalsky’s willingness to change one of his facility’s dates to a road course event.

Following the series’ experiment at Charlotte, Igdalsky maintains that while he isn’t advocating for a switch, he and his staff are ready to transition to a configuration with both left and right turns should NASCAR want to pursue the idea moving forward.

“There hasn’t been any further discussion with NASCAR about it," Igdalsky said in a phone interview Wednesday. “They know our capabilities and they know this is something we’d entertain if the industry deemed it as a direction that they wanted to go."

Igdalsky, who became Pocono Raceway’s third CEO in July 2017, was quick to point out that neither he nor his staff are pushing for this change.

“This is not something we’re going to jump in and jump on a fad," said Igdalsky, formerly the track’s chief operations officer and senior vice president. “Our fans, we know they want to see an oval race. If the demand grows to a point where you can’t not listen to them anymore and the industry wants it and the fans want it, then by all means we are prepared to move in that direction if that’s the direction that the industry takes."

If the sanctioning body does decide to follow the path toward road racing, Igdalsky would recommend using the North Course, a layout formerly used by IMSA.

2.5-mile road course

“It’s used quite often here. It’s one of our more popular road-course configurations because of how wide-open and racy this course is," he said. “It gives you everything from tight corners, passing opportunities, braking zones, chicanes and then long straightaways to create additional drafting and passing opportunities."

But this format is not the only option available. Pocono Raceway consists of 22 different layouts, each of which could be run in the opposite direction.

“NASCAR would come in, we’d have some FIA folks come in and also (include) the drivers’ input because we have so many configuration options here at Pocono," Igdalsky said. “We have over 44 configurations options that we can make out of our courses, so they may see something that we weren’t thinking about."

The track recommended by Igdalsky, which is 2.51 miles in length, would have to be run counterclockwise, the same direction in which NASCAR typically races, for the safety technology in place to be effective. Some walls toward the track’s infield have blunt ends where safety vehicles are stationed in case of an accident. These walls would pose an issue in a race run clockwise on this format.

And although key pieces are in place to hold this style of an event, Igdalsky admitted Pocono likely wouldn’t be ready to host cars tomorrow.

“I definitely think there’d be some investment by Pocono to have to make this happen," he said. “We’d have to bring in an FIA consultant. If I’m going to do this, it’s going to be done right. And so I’d want FIA to come in here and really look at everything."

In response to Charlotte’s first venture into road racing, Igdalsky said he was “pleasantly surprised."

“The race was I think better than most would have expected, especially on what you would consider an untried, unproven road course," he said.

The event featured beating and banging between competitors, including some drivers who attempted to out-brake others into corners creating contact. Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson was hot on the heels of leader and defending champion Martin Truex Jr. entering the final chicane, but Johnson slammed on his brakes too aggressively and spun backwards, sliding through one turn and into Truex.

That allowed then-third-place driver Ryan Blaney to emerge victorious.

“It was a road course that raced like a short track to me," Igdalsky said.

The road-racing future for Pocono Raceway remains unclear, but the picture for 2019 gained clarity on Tuesday. Pocono Record