{"id":47235,"date":"2024-07-14T11:56:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-14T16:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=47235"},"modified":"2024-07-14T11:56:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T16:56:35","slug":"nascar-pocono-saturday-weekend-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/14\/nascar-pocono-saturday-weekend-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Pocono Saturday Weekend Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Long Pond, Pa. \u2013 The defending Pocono race winner Hamlin conceded Saturday that securing NASCAR records do indeed matter to him and his legacy. The 43-old veteran holds an active driver\u2019 series best mark of seven wins at Pocono Raceway \u2013 including his career first victories in the NASCAR Cup Series \u2013 a sweep of the 2006 season.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Office Toyota, looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 23, 2022 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Logan Riely\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Hamlin currently has 54 wins \u2013 one shy of NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace\u2019s 55-victory total and second only to Kyle Busch\u2019s mark of 63 wins among active drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere I\u2019ve shifted my goals in the final years of my career is to try to get to a big win number, get inside the top-10 of all-time winners,\u2019\u2019 said Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.  \u201cThat\u2019s the goal I can achieve week in and week out, right? Certainly, always have goals of winning a championship and that goes over a long period of time. But week-to-week, that\u2019s what fuels me to continue to go to the racetrack and do this grind every week, is to try to nail down victories. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, I think when this is all said and done, all these different formats have changed cars, have changed over time, but the wins still stand as equal. I think that\u2019s why I value them so much.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

*Hendrick Motorsports driver Byron conceded he\u2019s genuinely excited to return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval next week for the 30th<\/sup> anniversary of the Brickyard 400 \u2013 the inaugural race in 1994 won by Hendrick executive and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon.<\/p>\n

After racing on The Speedway\u2019s road course the last three years, the NASCAR Cup Series will again race on the 2.5-mile oval next Sunday.\u201cI\u2019m excited for it. I think the track is fun to make laps on,\u2019\u2019 said Byron, who drives the same No. 24 Chevy that Gordon drove to a record five IMS trophies. \u201cI\u2019m sure it will be tricky with the Next Gen car, probably a little bit edgy. But I think it will be everything we want as drivers, to be back on the oval with the history that it has.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

*Team Penske driver Austin Cindric fully admits it\u2019s a big deal that Penske was the first team to earn a Playoff sweep \u2013 all three drivers qualifying for the 2024 Playoffs. All three Penske drivers advanced to the Playoffs with wins in the last month and a half. Cindric won at World Wide Technology Park on June 2. Teammate and reigning series champion Ryan Blaney won two weeks later at Iowa and Joey Logano \u2013 a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion – won two weeks at that at Nashville.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a team, we\u2019ve won the championship with Joey and Ryan the last two years, and it\u2019s all about using that system to be able to get to the next round each time,\u2019\u2019 said Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford. \u201cWhether if that\u2019s winning races late in the Playoffs or having enough points, our guys have been able to really execute in that round of eight and propel themselves into a position to be in the Championship Four.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all just about having your best day. I think for us, it\u2019s about maximizing each opportunity with each Playoff track and being able to understand where our strengths and weaknesses are. Apart from that, the biggest way to win the championship is to be in it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Long Pond, Pa. \u2013 The defending Pocono race winner Hamlin conceded Saturday that securing NASCAR records do indeed matter to him and his legacy. The 43-old veteran holds an active driver\u2019 series best mark of seven wins at Pocono Raceway \u2013 including his career first victories in the NASCAR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":39713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,252],"class_list":["post-47235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-pocono-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1410523437-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-chR","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47235"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47257,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47235\/revisions\/47257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}