Gluck: Pocono's pursuit of improvements delights many
LONG POND, Pa. — Confession: I used to wish bad things toward Pocono Raceway.
I dreamed that one day, Pocono would be removed from the NASCAR schedule. The track would end up like one of those abandoned honeymoon resorts nearby, weeds and bushes overtaking it as the buildings crumbled.
Pocono was easy to hate. It had a pair of boring 500-mile races held on a triangular track far from anything. It always seemed to rain. The track’s facilities appeared like they might have already been outdated by the time they were built.
But my opinion, like many others in the NASCAR garage, has changed — and I didn’t even realize it.
On Friday, I ran into Pocono track president/CEO Brandon Igdalsky, the grandson of the track’s late founder, Dr. Joseph Mattioli. Igdalsky thanked me for saying something nice about the track recently during a Sirius/XM Radio interview.
Me? Saying something nice about Pocono? I was caught off guard. What did I even say?
The best I can recall, it was something about how the quirky track has continued to make improvements every year to enhance the fan experience and has put on some much more entertaining races in recent seasons.
I suppose that counts as nice to Igdalsky’s ears after years of criticism. But thinking about it more, there actually are a lot of Pocono positives since Igdalsky took over.
From shortening the races to 400 miles each, repaving the track, renovating the track’s old-school entrance (it now has rocks and waterfalls!), updating the 1970s-era signage and, most recently, opening a dog park for campers’ pets, the family-run track has continued to make improvements. The track even has a solar farm across the street from the raceway.
This year, Pocono added more SAFER barriers and extended the wall near the entrance to pit road.
“Brandon and his guys are racers and they put a lot into this place,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Friday. “You would think that he is here every single day and this is all he does, (thinking) ‘How can I make racing and the experience for the fans better at this racetrack?’
“He is always upgrading. It seems like whatever they get out of this place, they put it right back in.”
Brad Keselowski first came to the track as a kid in the early 1990s, tagging along with his family’s ARCA team. When he returned as a driver in 2010, “it looked nothing different from when I came here (the first time),” he said.
“Over the last probably four or five years, I think it has seen a lot of upgrades that make me feel better about coming here specific to the (additional) SAFER barriers and things of that nature,” Keselowski added. “Those have been huge upgrades.”
The enhancements have been good, but it’s more than just a fresh coat of paint and some new wooden fences. Despite being in one of NASCAR’s most rustic locations, there’s a current feel to Pocono’s promotional efforts.
Attending a Pocono race weekend feels like if your old college buddy decided to host a backyard party and invited everyone he knew. A decade ago, it felt like showing up to a two-star bed-and-breakfast.
“I think my brother (Pocono COO Nick Igdalsky) and I are blown away by how much we’ve done in the short time we’ve done it,” Brandon Igdalsky said Saturday. “It’s a fun time in our lives for sure.”
The track has also continued to grant fans’ wishes. Fans wanted Pocono to bring more races to its weekends, and the track added an annual Camping World Truck Series race (2010) and now an Xfinity Series race (the inaugural version was scheduled for Saturday).
“For all you guys saying we needed to lose a (Cup) race, we’ve gained two races since then,” Igdalsky said. “I think we win, you guys lose. And the fans definitely won.”
Pocono isn’t perfect, and it’s not like the racing is as good as a short track or road course. But it’s an important track for NASCAR — two hours from New York City and Philadelphia — and seemingly a mainstay on the schedule.
“It is one of those tracks that is maybe not Daytona or Charlotte, but in that kind of second group of tracks that you think of when you think of NASCAR,” Keselowski said.
That might not be the highest praise, but here’s guessing Igdalsky thought it was pretty nice.
Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck