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As the most famous and prestigious oval racing series in the entire world, NASCAR mostly deals in symmetrical circuits. Circuits which, though they may vary in size and in characteristics, mostly obey the conventions of a set and familiar shape. Which is what makes the most misshapen of NASCAR's traditional racetracks such a puzzle.

One week after its second annual trip to the Chicago Street Course got the sport out of its comfort zone, the NASCAR Cup Series makes its annual summertime trip to the Pocono Raceway, one of the most unique tracks in all of American auto racing, for The Great American Getaway 400. Not only is Pocono one of the larger tracks on the schedule 2.5 miles in length, but it is also triangle-shaped, with three long straightaways conjoined by three entirely different corners, each varying in radius and angle of attack.

Pocono has been a fixture in NASCAR for 50 years dating back to 1974, and the track dubbed as "The Tricky Triangle" has been tamed by many of NASCAR's greatest drivers from Richard Petty's win in the inaugural race to Denny Hamlin's milestone seventh Pocono win in 2023.

How to Watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Pocono

Date: Sun. Jul. 14
Location: Pocono Raceway -- Long Pond, Penn.
Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
TV: USA
Stream: fubo (try for free)

What to Watch

The Cup Series' return to Pocono comes amid a greater spotlight being shined on the continued run-ins between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson, which has formally crossed the threshold from a series of recurring incidents into something else entirely. Nearly a full year after Hamlin squeezed Larson into the wall while racing him for the win at Pocono a year ago, Hamlin said on his podcast after the two went at it again in Nashville a few weeks ago that he and Larson's battles constitutes a rivalry -- if people want to call it that.

"I'm in this for the long haul," Hamlin said. "I'm fine with the way we're racing, and it's gonna keep going and it's gonna keep getting raised."

Over the past few years, many of the on-track battles between these two drivers have ended with Larson either in the wall or otherwise on the wrong end of things, which had influenced spotter Tyler Monn to tell Larson at New Hampshire that Hamlin races the driver of the No. 5 the way he does "because you let it happen." The 2021 Cup champion has proceeded by trying to take a stand for himself, recently telling SiriusXM that Nashville marked the point for him to make it clear he wasn't going to accept the way Hamlin has raced him.

"Now going forward, I'm ready to move on. I've got zero issue at this point -- I just would like a little bit of respect on the racetrack and a little bit more room than maybe I've been given," Larson said. "I think if we can do that, we can go back to racing fair and challenging each other fairly for wins. I think that we are the two top teams in the sport right now, so we're going to be battling for a lot more wins together and all that.

"I've enjoyed racing him in the past, it's just that we've had a few run-ins. Like I said, I'm ready to just move on and go back to having fun racing each other."

The chances are good that Hamlin and Larson will be racing each other for the lead and win again this year, as Hamlin is the winningest driver in Pocono history with seven victories while Larson has run exceptionally well here since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2021. If that scenario ends up playing out, the way they go to battle with each other and how it ends will be of universal intrigue.

News of the Week

  • Front Row Motorsports announced on Wednesday that they have signed Noah Gragson to a multi-year contract to join the team beginning in 2025. Gragson, who becomes the third Stewart-Haas Racing driver to find a new ride for next season in as many weeks, will reunite with Todd Gilliland after the two were previously teammates at Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series. Front Row has now filled one of its two open seats for 2025, with the driver of its new third team still to be determined.
  • Spire Motorsports announced Tuesday that the team is hiring Rodney Childers, the 2014 Cup champion crew chief, as the new crew chief for Corey LaJoie beginning in 2025. Childers, who has spent the past decade at Stewart-Haas Racing and won 37 races in that span, will take the place of Ryan Sparks who will become Spire's full-time competition director. Childers' success as a Cup crew chief predates his tenure at SHR, as he had previously guided David Reutimann and Brian Vickers to wins at Michael Waltrip Racing.
  • NASCAR has fined Bubba Wallace $50,000 for his post-race actions at the Chicago Street Course, in which he doorslammed Alex Bowman in retaliation for being spun out earlier in the race while Bowman's window net was down during the cooldown lap. Wallace has had a history of issues with retaliation, most notably in 2022 when he was parked for one race after intentionally wrecking Kyle Larson over getting squeezed into the wall at Las Vegas.

Pick to Win

Kyle Larson (+450) -- Compared to Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson is still looking for his first win at The Tricky Triangle. He's come agonizingly close since joining Hendrick Motorsports, including a year ago when he got run into the wall while racing Hamlin for the win. Sandwiched between that and the first race of a double-header weekend in 2021, where he blew a tire while leading in the final corner, are a second-place finish and a fifth-place finish.

With five top fives and nine top 10s in his career at Pocono, it does feel like Larson is due at this racetrack. And based on the way he's continued to contend on a weekly basis, I think this could be Larson's year, so long as he isn't feeling the ill effects of a pretty hard hit at Chicago.