GARAGE TALK: Pocono Safety and Fuel Saving

By @GucciardoJoey

People fixing the wall that Kasey Kahne hit this past Sunday at
Pocono Raceway.
(PHOTO: Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)

Pocono's Safety Measures

We saw the incidents this weekend in a Sprint Cup practice session this past Saturday where Jeb Burton slammed into the metal put road wall, and Kasey Kahne did the same thing the next day where he hit the pit road wall on lap 4 in the race.

"How safe is Pocono?" That's what I'm asking myself after these two incidents.

Well, NASCAR is a very safe sport. Burton had to go to a backup car when he hit the wall in practice, but the metal wall held up. But maybe the wall shouldn't be metal. Maybe it should be concrete, and should even have a SAFER  Barrier as the pit lane. Also, another possibility to make the track safer would be to extend the wall to begin at the end of the third turn and have some space  between the racing surface, apron and the wall at the exit of Turn 3 and onto the Frontstretch so that when a car exits then 3 and spins on the Frontstretch, the collision would be much less hard on the car, and on the driver.

"I saw the people and I was like "Man, you guys better take off running and get out of the way," Kahne said during a TV interview with NBC Sports, referring to the people who were standing by the wall that he collided with early in the race.

Fuel Strategies?

If you saw the fuel gambling mistakes made by many drivers this weekend, then you probably thought to yourself, "Are fuel strategies helpful?" The answer is yes in my opinion. Fuel strategies have won (and lost) races for many drivers. 

Joey Logano had the race lost because of the fuel strategy he used in this past Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Pocono. He ran out of fuel with 3 laps to go, giving Kyle Busch the lead. But Busch was using the same fuel saving strategy as Logano, and Busch ran out of fuel on the last lap.

Matt Kenseth went on to win the race.

But as hectic as the end of that race was, with many drivers running out of fuel, Kenseth stood out and jumped to 4th place on the Chase standings.

Fuel strategies are the gambles in NASCAR that can give you the win, or cost you the victory. 

Saving fuel is what many drivers do to increase their chances of having more fuel to make it to the end o the race, whether it's stepping off and back on the gas, or turning the engine back off and on again.

Logano and Busch gave it their best shot this past weekend when they were saving fuel, as Busch was turning his engine off and on.

A time when fuel saving cost someone the race was Marcos Ambrose in 2010. He was in 1st undr a caution with very few laps to go. He was low on fuel, so he turned off his engine, fell back a few spots, and then went back to the lead. 

NASCAR said that Ambrose had to go back to where he fell back, and Jimmie Johnson, who was supposed to start 2nd on that restart, starte 1st, which would lead Johnson to his first-ever (and only) road course win in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career.

Basically, fuel strategy can win you a race, and fuel strategy can cost you the win in a race.

LOOK OUT: Keselowski's Pit Road Incident

During the Sprint Cup race this past Sunday, Brad Keselowski drove too fast into his pit stall, and the car made contact with two of his pit crew members, one of them was his jackman.

Both crew members were okay despite being thrown into the air by Keselowski's speeding car.

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time Keselowski's team has faced something like this.

Earlier this season at Kentucky in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Keselowski sped into his pit stall, struck one of his crew members (Jeremy Ogles), and even struck one of Jeff Gordon's crew members (John Gianotto). Both crew members were okay.