After a relatively unexciting run at the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR will look to provide more thrills this weekend, this time from Pocono Raceway for the Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400. Part superspeedway and part road course, the “Tricky Triangle” of Pocono will surely bring out some wild and unexpected results.
Who are the circuit’s top stars that could emerge victorious from Long Pond, Pennsylvania? Let’s find out below. And to know how how much each of the drivers will possibly earn this Sunday, head on over to feature on the Axalta 400’s prize money breakdown right after this.
Currently sitting at 13th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would love nothing more right now than to finally win his first race of the year to become the 10th driver to automatically qualify for The Chase.
Earnhardt knows all the surprises of the Tricky Triangle, having won back-to-back races on the course during the 2014 season. And for a larger sample size of his success, he’s also secured eight top-10 finishes in his last 10 trips to Pocono.
Having four top 10s this season shows that No. 88 is still having quite a sensational season, but nothing would please Earnhardt more than a win on a track that he has seemingly mastered for so long.
Jimmie Johnson
Jimmie Johnson’s another driver who’s found little to no trouble navigating around Pocono’s turns.
Johnson, who is Earnhardt’s teammate at Hendrik Motorsports, has arguably had better success than his fellow 40-year-old speedster. He’s also a former champion of the Axalta 400 (2013) along with 11 top-5 finishes (with two other wins at that) and 19 top 10s in 28 career starts at Pocono.
Johnson already has two wins this season, and is hot on the heels of points leader Kyle Busch. A win on Sunday will likely put him at the peak of the drivers’ standings and further solidify his position of becoming a record-tying seven-time Sprint Cup Series champion.
Sleepers
Denny Hamlin
Amongst all active drivers, Denny Hamlin is the only one to have won at Pocono four times over. While that statistic should’ve trumped either Earnhardt or Johnson’s credentials before him, it’s also worth noting that the former Rookie of the Year last won on the track back in 2010 at the Exalta 400 itself.
Nevertheless, having nine top 5s and 13 top 10s in 28 starts on the Tricky Triangle overall is still no easy feat. Hamlin already has one win this season, so a return to form at Pocono for him is still quite a possibility.
Martin Truex Jr.
Not only is Martin Truex Jr. fresh off a dominant victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway this past week, he’s also the Axalta 400’s defending champion after leading for a rather commanding 97 laps in that race.
However, in spite of Pocono’s close proximity to his hometown (New Jersey), Truex has not had a whole lot of success on the track as one would expect outside of his win from 2015. Still, stellar outings from this month and in last year’s installment of the event makes the 35-year-old a more than trendy pick to win it all on Sunday.
Long Shot
Austin Dillon
This season is shaping up to be Austin Dillon’s best campaign yet, with six of his 15 career top-10 finishes coming this 2016 alone.
However, the 26-year-old upstart is still in search of his first-ever Sprint Cup victory, and he’s not likely going to get that elusive win this weekend. In his six years as a pro, Dillon has failed to break through the top 5 in all of his appearances at Pocono.
There are dark horse picks to bank on this week and there are some outright bad picks as well. Dillon, unfortunately, qualifies for the latter rather than the former.
