2002

The Pocono Experience
By Lou Demian

The 2002 Pocono 500 was the 2nd race that we've ever gone to. The first being the 2001 Pocono 500 (hopefully someday I'll scan some pictures from that race). This was the first race that we stayed the entire weekend for. We had a lot of fun, but it was also very tiring. I lost track of how many times we walked from the souvenir trailer area to Pitrow. It had to be at least a half mile each way. The reason for doing so, was because you never knew which driver might be signing autographs, and where they were doing it. Trailers would post upcoming driver signings on boards, but you never knew when they might post it. The result was that you had to constantly check the trailers. Most of the times that drivers signed at the trailers, you would need to obtain tickets just to stand on line. So you would be standing online twice a lot of times.

Pocono is very fan friendly when it comes to the garage area. After buying a pitpass, fans could go onto pitrow at certain times to watch the cars qualify or practice. Unfortunately when we went, qualifying was "rained out" even though there was no rain that day. The previous day, it rained so much that water was still constantly seeping onto the track, so they couldn't use it. I heard they fixed the drainage for the following year, so hopefully they won't have that problem anymore. The garage itself is separated from the fans by a black metal fence, which allows fans to get right up there and see all the garage action. This was very nice in my opinion compared to some tracks where you can't even get near the garages. Daytona was one of these tracks. The problem is that on raceday there are so many fans, that's its hard to navigate through all the fans standing around that area. The best time to try and get autographs around there is during qualifying day.

A few drivers that we were able to get autographs from were Steve Park, Jeremy Mayfield, and Kyle Petty at the garage area. We almost were able to get Rusty Wallace but he walked away right when we got near him. Figures, we're not too fond of him anyway. At the souvenir trailers, we waited on line and were able to get Michael Waltrip, Ricky Craven, and Larry McReynold's autograph. Some other drivers that we saw signing, but weren't able to get their autograph were Bobby Labonte, Matt Kenseth, Jimmy Johnson, Sterling Marlin and Kurt Busch. We were able to get some good pictures of them though.

We were disappointed some of the other big name drivers were nowhere to be found. We saw Dale Jr. a little bit hiding back in the garage, but not much of him at all. Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick were nowhere to be found. We saw Ward Burton walk by and Richard Petty also.

For the race itself, we sprung for the good seats. We were up near the top under a roof and we had catering as well. Surprisingly they had some nice food there. I was very pleased with that. We were able to see just about all of the track, except the backstretch was so far out, it was tough to see the racing going on, plus there was an accident as well. Dale Jarret won the race, and we kinda like him so that was ok.

Traffic leaving the track was really horrible. Total gridlock for hours. I believe Pocono has one of the worst traffic problems because there's only like 2 directions you can go, both on the same road. Plus you need to wait for the infield to empty out, so if you go there, bring something along to help pass the time.

I'd definately go back to Pocono, it's a nice track. The people are friendly, there are a lot of places to get souvenirs, the surrounding mountainside is a nice environment, and there can be some good racing as well.

See Our Pictures from the 2002 Pocono 500 in Long Pond, PA!
Click Here For The Pictures
Results from the Pocono 500, June 9 2002



Fin

St

Driver

Car

Laps

*

Earnings

Pts


1.

13

Dale Jarrett

Ford

200
 

$206,298

180


2.

6

Mark Martin

Ford

200
 

141,003

175


3.

2

Jimmie Johnson

Chevy

200
 

83,570

165


4.

1

Sterling Marlin

Dodge

200
 

113,772

160


5.

3

Jeff Gordon

Chevy

200
 

125,003

160


6.

11

Jeff Burton

Ford

200
 

95,532

155


7.

7

Tony Stewart

Pontiac

200
 

96,043

146


8.

17

Michael Waltrip

Chevy

200
 

59,265

142


9.

5

Rusty Wallace

Ford

200
 

89,315

138


10.

21

Dave Blaney

Ford

200
 

75,815

134


11.

37

Casey Atwood

Dodge

200
 

67,615

130


12.

14

Dale Earnhardt Jr

Chevy

200
 

78,612

127


13.

20

Kyle Petty

Dodge

200
 

45,465

124


14.

12

Ricky Craven

Ford

200
 

51,965

126


15.

25

Elliott Sadler

Ford

200
 

65,215

118


16.

38

Ken Schrader

Pontiac

200
 

63,765

115


17.

10

Ricky Rudd

Ford

200
 

83,582

122


18.

39

Todd Bodine

Ford

199

e

67,852

109


19.

28

Robby Gordon

Chevy

199
 

68,371

106


20.

27

Johnny Benson

Pontiac

199
 

71,990

103


21.

18

Jimmy Spencer

Dodge

199
 

41,665

100


22.

31

Hut Stricklin

Dodge

199
 

49,365

97


23.

32

Steve Park

Chevy

198
 

70,915

94


24.

36

Brett Bodine

Ford

198
 

49,179

96


25.

19

Bobby Labonte

Pontiac

198
 

83,143

85


26.

34

Steve Grissom

Dodge

198
 

40,915

88


27.

26

Bobby Hamilton

Chevy

197
 

48,215

82


28.

40

Stacy Compton

Pontiac

195
 

39,565

79


29.

41

Hermie Sadler

Ford

193
 

36,890

76


30.

9

Bill Elliott

Dodge

180

e

63,296

78


31.

35

John Andretti

Dodge

179
 

63,673

75


32.

15

Ryan Newman

Ford

174
 

44,440

72


33.

22

Ward Burton

Dodge

173
 

79,240

64


34.

23

Jeff Green

Chevy

171
 

36,040

61


35.

4

Matt Kenseth

Ford

161
 

53,865

63


36.

24

Jeremy Mayfield

Dodge

146

e

43,665

55


37.

29

Mike Skinner

Chevy

142

e

35,500

52


38.

16

Terry Labonte

Chevy

102

e

64,208

49


39.

30

Kevin Harvick

Chevy

81

u

81,028

46


40.

8

Kurt Busch

Ford

67

c

43,100

43


41.

33

Joe Nemechek

Chevy

29

c

42,965

40


42.

42

Carl Long 

Dodge

18

b

34,875

37


43.

43

Frank Kimmel

Ford

8

e

35,069

34





Average speed of race winner: 143.426 mph.

Time of race: 3 hours, 29 minutes, 10 seconds.

Margin of victory: Race ended under caution.

Caution flags: 5 for 17 laps.

Lead changes: 17 among 12 drivers.

Lap leaders: S. Marlin 1-2; J. Gordon 3-32; J. Andretti 33-36; R. Craven 37-40;
R. Newman 41-59; D. Jarrett 60-69; M. Martin 70-71; D. Jarrett 72-87; B. Bodine 
88; M. Kenseth 89-91; B. Elliott 92-117; D. Jarrett 118-120; R. Rudd 121-154; 
M. Martin 155-159; R. Rudd 160-169; J. Burton 170-178; R. Rudd 179-194; D. 
Jarrett 195-200.

Points standings: 1. S. Marlin, 2,064; 2. J. Johnson, 1,928; 3. J. Gordon, 
1,899; 4. M. Martin, 1,852; 5. R. Wallace, 1,826; 6. T. Stewart, 1,820; 7. M. 
Kenseth, 1,794; 8. R. Rudd, 1,728; 9. J. Burton, 1,706; 10. K. Busch, 1,699.

17 Feb 2004