The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series' two yearly races at Pocono Raceway will be consolidated to a single June 25-28 weekend in 2020. While the series is at the Long Pond, Pa., track for Sunday's Gander RV 400, its second Pocono race of 2019, details were revealed Saturday for the 2020 historic weekend.
The two Cup Series races at Pocono next June will be components of a five-race weekend, also including single races for the ARCA Menards Series and the NASCAR Xfinity and Ganders Outdoors Truck series. The ARCA race will open the weekend with a Thursday race. The Cup races will be Saturday and Sunday, with Saturday's race preceded by a Truck Series race and the Xfinity Series race an opening act for Sunday's Cup Series race.
The official race distance for the second Cup Series race of the series weekend doubleheader at Pocono will be 350 miles. The first race also is expected to be 350 miles, but a definite decision hasn't been made. That distance is a cut from the standard 400-mile length of Cup Series races at Pocono Raceway in recent years.
According to Scott Miller, NASCAR Executive Vice President of Competition, Cup teams will be expected to use the same car in both races of next year's doubleheader. Drivers who wreck in the first race, necessitating a backup car for the second race will start the second race in the back. He also said teams will likely have the option of an engine change between races but most probably will use the same engine for both races because of NASCAR's sealed engine rule.
The starting grid for the Saturday race will be set by a traditional qualifying session on Friday, but the grid for the Sunday race will be determined by the finishing order of the first race. The first-race finishing order of the lead lap cars will be inverted to start the second race. First-race lap[s]-down cars will start behind the lead-lap cars for the second race.
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