LONG POND — Berwick’s Jimmy Spencer, a former NASCAR driver who grew up near the track, was one of many drivers who have wished the length of the races at Pocono Raceway would not match the name of the village it calls home.
Veteran Jeff Burton is the latest to espouse the shorter race theory for the Pennsylvania raceway’s two annual Sprint Cup races.
Unlike some drivers, such as Jeff Gordon, who have recently bad-mouthed the speedway, Burton said he likes racing at Pocono.
He’s just rather race a shorter distance.
“I do support the track, but I think the quality of racing could be better at 400 miles,” said the driver of the No. 31 AT&T; Chevrolet on Friday before the start of practice for Sunday’s Pocono 500.
He suggested that NASCAR try shortening one of the two races to 400 miles. Then, if the fans don’t like it, they can always go back to 500, he said.
Burton, who enters the weekend second in Sprint Cup points behind Kyle Busch, has never won at Pocono’s unusual two and a half-mile trio-oval. In 28 races, he has six top-five finishes, 13 top-10s, and an average finish of 16.8.
He noted that shortening races at Rockingham and Dover have been beneficial, and is worth trying at Pocono.
“I think 500 miles was almost a status symbol in the day. A track needed to have a 500-mile race. They’ve even gone so far as to calling races a ‘500K.’ I don’t get the number. I think what matters is that the quality of the race is the best that it can possibly be,” Burton said. “And this is a track that has the potential to put on a better show at 400 miles.”
He added, “I think (shortening the race) is worth a shot. I don’t think the fans would be disappointed about that. It doesn’t really matter what the teams think, it matters what the fans think.
“What the heck, if the fans don’t like it you can always go back to 500. I don’t care if it’s 800, I just want the race to be something where the fans have the most fun and most excitement,” he said.
Burton added that when the track is as big as Pocono (the track has a 3,740-foot front stretch and a 3,055-foot backstretch), the field tends to get spread out a little more than other tracks.
“I think it would be worth trying something different,” he said.
Burton contended that the shorter the race, the more exciting it will usually be, because drivers wait until late in a race to take more chances. “The race gets the most intense in the end,” he said. “The sooner you can start that intensity level ratcheting up, the better the action, the more chances people take, the more things happen.
“Not that I advocate wrecks, but cautions do create exciting races, so the more we can do to compact those things on these bigger race tracks, the better the opportunity for a high-quality race,” Burton added. “We’ve seen some really good races here, and we’ve seen some that were not so good.”
“If this were my deal, I’d say we’re running a 350,” he said. “Once you make a decision, there’s nothing saying you can’t back up. But it would be neat to see what would happen.”
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Burton would like to see shortened race
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