Pocono Raceway - Notable Events

Notable Events

• 1971: Schaefer Beer agrees to sponsor Pocono's Indycar 500.

• July 3, 1971: Mark Donohue wins the inaugural USAC Pocono 500. NASCAR Grand National regulars Donnie Allison & Cale Yarborough finish 28th & 32nd respectively.

• July 1972: Massive flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes forced postponement of the Schaefer 500 to late July, in conjunction with USAC's Pennsylvania 500 for stock cars; Pocono became the first track to hold back-to-back 500 mile races in one weekend. Joe Leonard won the Schaefer 500 while Roger McCluskey drove a Plymouth Superbird to win the Pennsylvania 500.

• August 4, 1974: Richard Petty wins the inaugural Pocono 500.

• August 1, 1976: Petty scores a popular win after David Pearson blows a tire with two laps to go.

• June 21, 1981: A.J. Foyt wins the USAC Van Scoy Diamond Mines 500. This is the final IndyCar race that USAC sanctioned at Pocono. From 1982–1989 the IndyCar races would be sanctioned by CART. It was also Foyt's final IndyCar win.

• August 15, 1982: Rick Mears wins the CART Domino's Pizza Pocono 500, the first CART IndyCar sanctioned race.

• 1985 Bill Elliott sweeps both Pocono cup races.

• 1986–1987: Tim Richmond wins three Pocono races in a row. The third and last was the spring race in 1987. Richmond had just returned after missing the first part of the season battling HIV. Richmond was the first HIV positive race car driver to win a major race, this wasn't revealed for nearly four years.

• July 20, 1986: Richmond recovers from a crash and beats Ricky Rudd and Geoff Bodine in a photo finish.

• June 19, 1988: On the opening lap of the 1988 Miller High-life 500, Bobby Allison suffered career-ending injuries when he spun and was T-boned by the #63 of Jocko Maggiacomo.

• August 21, 1988: Bobby Rahal wins the CART Quaker State 500. This was Bobby's only win of the season. It was his final win with the Truesports IndyCar team, he would leave the team at the end of the season to join team Kraco (incidentally at the end of 1989 team Kraco merged with Galles racing to form Kraco-Galles). This was also the only win ever scored for the Judd engine.

• August 20, 1989: Danny Sullivan wins the final CART Pocono 500. This was the final year of the IndyCar 500 mile triple crown.

• 1999: Bobby Labonte sweeps both races at Pocono.

• June 18, 2000: Jeremy Mayfield knocked Dale Earnhardt out of his way to score his third career Winston Cup win.

• July 28, 2002: Steve Park and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. became entangled exiting turn one, and both cars slammed into the inside wall, causing Park's vehicle to go airborne over the hood of Earnhardt's car and barrel roll. The incident resulted in a lengthy red flag to repair the old-fashioned highway barrier (a guardrail with wooden supports) that lined the inside of the track in that area. Soon afterward, all outdated barriers at the track were replaced with sturdier walls. The race was shortened by 25 laps due to this repair and rain delays throughout the race, Bill Elliott won the race.

• 2004: The SAFER barrier is installed in all the turns.

• 2006: Raybestos Rookie of the Year Denny Hamlin sweeps both races at Pocono.

• June 6, 2008: Pocono raceway becomes one of the first NASCAR tracks in the country to utilize barcode-based ticketing.

• June 2008 James Hylton becomes the oldest driver to race at Pocono in the ARCA series.

• August 2, 2008: Frank Kimmel, a 9-time ARCA Re/Max Series champion, was injured after a 3-car crash on lap 68 of a Pocono race that involved his car being clipped and slamming into the backstretch wall on the driver's side, going airborne as a result. Kimmel suffered a partially torn sphincter and pulled groin, spending the night in a local hospital before being released.

• June 7, 2009: Tony Stewart wins the 2009 Pocono 500. In doing so, he becomes the first person who both owns and drives his car to win in Sprint Cup since Ricky Rudd in 1998. The double-file restart shootout style restart procedure was introduced at the race for the first time at a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points race.

• June 6, 2010: With two laps to go, Kevin Harvick turned Joey Logano, setting up a green white checkered finish. On the last lap, Kasey Kahne got loose, went through the grass, was hit by Mark Martin and Greg Biffle, and flew through the air, completely destroying several hedges outside the track due to the absence of a catch fence. Denny Hamlin cruised to victory.

• July 31, 2010: The Camping World Truck Series raced for the first time at Pocono, with the Pocono Mountains 125. It used a multi-truck qualifying format in which successive trucks were sent out 25 seconds apart. Elliott Sadler won the first event, for the Truck Series, at Pocono.

• August 1, 2010: Jimmie Johnson clipped Kurt Busch on the Long Pond Straightaway and Busch spun across the track. Behind him Elliott Sadler was drop-kicked by teammate A.J. Allmendinger and punched the inside guardrail so savagely it ripped the engine out of the car and threw it to the entrance of the Tunnel Turn. Sadler's wrecked car slid to a stop back on the track and despite being shaken and suffering some pain he would climb out of the car slowly and was able to walk to the ambulance. The crash was recorded as the hardest hit in NASCAR history. This wreck (along with Kasey Kahne's crash in the spring race) aroused concern over the safety of the track and renovations were made to improve safety, adding SAFER barriers to the inside retaining wall and a catch fence on the Long Pond Straightaway. Greg Biffle won the race, days after owner Jack Roush was involved in a plane crash.

• June 12, 2011: Jeff Gordon scored his 84th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win, tying Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for 3rd on the all time win list.

• August, 7, 2011 After sustaining an injury in a test crash at Road Atlanta. Brad Keselowski wins just 3 days later after the crash.

• October 4, 2011: Improvement projects announced including repaving the track, installing a new flag stand, making the pit stalls concrete, and adding a new pit wall. This will be the first time the track has been repaved since 1995. The new flag stand comes from an incident in which a Camping World Truck Series hauler clipped the old stand and destroyed it back in August.

• January 26, 2012: Founder and chairman of the board for Pocono Raceway, Joseph Mattioli, dies after a long illness.

• January 31, 2012: After a viewing and a funeral, Doc. Mattioli took his last lap around Pocono Raceway.

• April 25–26, 2012: Pocono Raceway hosts a Goodyear Tires Test for Sprint Cup Series and Camping World Truck series teams, the first event held following the repaving project.

• August 5, 2012: After Jeff Gordon clinches his first win of the 2012 season in the 2012 Pennsylvania 400 after the race ended due to a rainstorm, a fan was killed by a lightning strike, while nine others were injured.

• October 2012: Pocono Raceway suffers damage from Hurricane Sandy, such as the steeple being destroyed, the Victory Tower roof being partially missing, and power outages.