CONCORD, N.C. – Following the successful completion of Charlotte race weeks, the Hendrick Motorsports haulers head north tonight to Pennsylvania.
The organization has a long, successful track record at the "Tricky Triangle," having logged 17 wins, 65 top-five finishes and 113 top-10s. Drivers have also claimed 12 pole positions and led a combined total of 3,160 laps around the 2.5-mile track.
It has been two years since Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s victory at the Long Pond, Pennsylvania, triangle, the organization’s most recent Pocono win. This weekend, the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers will look to add another win to that total.
But before racing action resumes, take a look back at three very memorable Hendrick Motorsports moments at Pocono Raceway.
June 8, 1986: It only took Hendrick Motorsports two years to claim its first win at the Long Pond, Pennsylvania, track. Tim Richmond lined up in third behind teammate and pole-sitter Geoffrey Bodine for the start of the race. Throughout the event, Richmond led almost half of the 200 laps but perhaps the most important were the final 31, when he regained the lead. He held off his competitors to take the checkered flag for the second Pocono victory of his career.
June 8, 1997: Jeff Gordon had logged his first Pocono win the year prior in the June race, and he returned in 1997 looking for the same outcome. And that’s exactly what he found. Gordon rolled off the grid just outside the top 10 in 11th and led one lap within the first 20 of the 200-lap event. The driver held steady and with less than 70 laps remaining, took the lead once again. Logging 58 more laps as the leader, Gordon was the first to cross the finish line, claiming his second career win at the 2.5-mile track.
June 8, 2014: Earnhardt headed to Pocono Raceway in 2014 with seven top-five finishes at the track to his name, his best career finish being second place (2007). He qualified in eighth, just .511-seconds behind the pole-sitter. After taking the green flag, Earnhardt slowly worked his way to the front of the field, taking the lead for the first time 17 laps past the halfway mark. He would hold the lead two more times, including the final five laps before taking the checkered flag for the first win of a 2014 sweep at Pocono Raceway.
