IndyCar preview: Pocono IndyCar 500 fueled by Sunoco

Is that because… There's just one support race? Access roads are incompatible for the amount of traffic? There's no sponsor for the Triple Crown (of which Pocono is the second race) so the promotion has been soft on the IndyCar side? It’s on Independence Day weekend (as per Mr. Igdalsky’s request)? Hmm…, but that’s when it fell last year, too.

It’s probably a combination of all these factors. What I can say for certain is that from a pure enthusiast point of view, it would be a damn shame if the third year of IndyCar’s deal with Pocono didn’t happen in 2015, because, (a) For an event to establish itself, it needs to be given at least three years, and (b) one of the great things about IndyCar’s selection of ovals – Indianapolis, Texas, Pocono, Iowa, Milwaukee and Fontana – is that they all make unique demands on a driver and engineer, all are instantly recognizable on TV or in photos. They have individual character, in other words.

Anyway, if you’re in the vicinity – and by that I mean a 12 hour radius ;-) – get yourself to Pocono on Sunday. Here’s what you’re likely to see.

VICTORY CONTENDERS

Pennsylvanian hero Marco Andretti was king of the 2.5-mile “Tricky Triangle” last year, taking pole and leading more than half the race. Unfortunately, that was also probably part of his undoing as, with just 12 laps of yellow, he had little chance to make up the fuel he was burning by being at the head of the line. When it became apparent that there were no yellows coming in the second half of the race, he dropped off the lead but it was too little too late and he was eventually classified an unrepresentative 10th.

One of his Andretti Autosport teammates, James Hinchcliffe, meanwhile, had been feeling that same frustration for a couple of hours already, having crashed out on the first lap while another AA driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay reached lap 63 before his yellow machine was assaulted by Takuma Sato’s car in pitlane.

Now, bear in mind these three were the front-row starters in IndyCar’s only row-of-three grid outside of the Indianapolis 500, and while there’s been plenty of evidence to suggest that a good 2013 street-course setup won’t put you in front at the same event in 2014, on ovals there has been greater commonality. Think Ed Carpenter Racing, Andretti Autosport and Team Penske at Indy; think ECR, Penske and Ganassi at Texas Motor Speedway – all quick both last year and this year.

Therefore, expect the Andretti cars to shine at Pocono once more, and the hard lessons of a year ago to have been learned. Should Hunter-Reay win, he’s two-thirds of the way toward scoring the Triple Crown of “500” wins. He’ll also have scored a big helping of points that could see him at least split the lead Penske cars in the championship at the end of this, the 11th round of an 18-race series.

The AA team is likely to lead the Honda contingent and the battle between HPD and Chevrolet will be very interesting. The torque curve of the engines will play a role in how well drivers exit Turn 1 and also the how quick they can accelerate exiting the pits. A couple of Chevrolet drivers felt they lost positions to Honda drivers on out laps for this very reason last year.

But most crucial of all will be fuel consumption if there are few yellow-flag laps. Remember, the race is 100 miles longer this year than last so hopefully this makes fuel strategy a lot more cut-and-dried than in 2013 when, during the penultimate stint, the drivers were cruising around some 10mph off their ultimate pace in order to ensure they needed just one more stop. Looked a bit feeble, to be honest.

Penske’s Will Power says he loves this track, and certainly he could have led far more laps than he did last year had he not been saving fuel. He qualified and finished fourth and might have had the beating of all but Dixon if he’d realized Kimball and Franchitti were on the same lap and not just let them go following their final stops. He’ll be sure to avoid that kind of “Doh!” moment this time around, especially as he’s locked in a title battle with teammate Helio Castroneves (also strong at Pocono) Hunter-Reay and Simon Pagenaud.

Pagenaud looked as good as any of the guys who finished ahead of him at this race last year and so the Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsport driver should be in contention for his first oval victory. But there are (at least) two more drivers who could have the pace and setup to win here. His pitlane brain-fart aside, Takuma Sato was very rapid here in 2013 so AJ Foyt Racing has a handy setup and of course Taku is bold enough to make moves when the opportunity arises. But an even darker horse may be Justin Wilson. Although his Dale Coyne Racing car wasn’t quite a pace setter last year, having Michael Cannon as his race engineer should make up the difference. Cannon ran EJ Viso at Andretti last season, and the Venezuelan was set to start fifth at Pocono – up with the other AA cars – when he hit the wall on the second lap of his qualifying run. Any insight as to what made the fastest cars fastest last year is going to be a huge help to JWil.

PODIUM POSSIBLES

Sebastien Bourdais was looking his old, bold self in Houston and the Frenchman is going to be sitting in the No. 11 KV Racing car that Kanaan could feasibly have won Pocono with in 2013. Seb himself had a mediocre time with the Dragon

Racing entry last year but he finished only one lap down in a race with only two short yellow-flag periods. He seems to have the track figured out, and he’s good at looking after fuel and tires on all types of circuit.

Ed Carpenter is going to figure at any oval this year, it seems (did I really ignore him in my Texas preview?!), but it may be too much to expect him to be a winning contender considering his invisibility for much of last year’s race so a podium finish should be regarded as good step-by-step, year-on-year progress by ECR. Fellow single-car entrant Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing should be very pleased with the progress it made over the course of last year’s race, as Josef Newgarden was fast enough to nip ahead of Pagenaud in the final stint. RACER folks try not to play favorites, but we reckon Josef and his No. 67 have earned enough good karma to finish top three in all the remaining races this season.

No rookie should be a podium contender on an oval as quirky as Fontana but SPM's Mikhail Aleshin is not just any rookie and his confidence – which was never in short supply anyway – is only going to be boosted by his first podium in Houston, as well as his superb run at his last oval race, at Texas Motor Speedway. Bryan Herta Autosport's Jack Hawksworth has previous race experience at Pocono, having finished fifth here in Indy Lights. And their rookie rival Carlos Munoz, being equipped with an Andretti car, should also be in and around the top five.

Also look for…

• Slickness in pit stops is going to be repetitively crucial. Despite a lap time of around 42sec, the length of the slow-down zone and pitlane ensures cars come close to losing a lap during a green-flag pit stop. Any hold-ups could shoot a leader into slower traffic, and that will lose him track position to a car that’s had a fuss-free out lap. Same as any ra

ce, right? Right, but with stops coming every 30 green-flag laps for this 200-lap race, those pit crews are going to have to execute well at least seven times.

• If you’re on site – and again, we urge you to attend – check out the vintage cars. Couldn’t get enough pictures of this honey last year [RIGHT, not an LAT photo…].

• Watch the Indy Lights race. If the IndyCar schedule has been hectic, the Lights boys have been downright lethargic by contrast; this will be their first race since the Freedom 100, two days before the Indy 500. Gabby Chaves (Belardi Auto Racing) and Zach Veach (Andretti Autosport) each have 264 points but their respective teammates Alex Baron and Matty Brabham are within striking distance, and in between them are the Schmidt Peterson pairing of Luiz Razia and Jack Harvey. Any one of these six could win.