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The Monsters of CART – Part 11: Pocono Speedway and the Asymmetric "Tricky Triangle"

After wrestling the short, flat, physical turns of the Milwaukee Mile, the "Monsters of CART" caravan heads east into the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Here lies one of the most uniquely intimidating speedways ever constructed: Pocono Raceway, affectionately and fearfully known as the "Tricky Triangle."


Designed with input from legendary racer Rodger Ward, Pocono is unlike any traditional oval or superspeedway on Earth. It features three distinct turns, three massive straightaways, and zero symmetry. Each corner was intentionally modeled after a completely different famous racetrack, creating an engineering nightmare for crew chiefs and a high-speed game of Russian roulette for drivers behind the wheel of a 950-horsepower turbocharged monster.

📐 Three Corners, Three Totally Different Beasts

To understand why Pocono earned its "Tricky" nickname during the 1990s CART era, you have to break down its impossible geometry:

  • Turn 1 (14° Banking): Modeled after the long-gone Trenton Speedway, this is a massive, high-speed sweeping left-hander coming off the longest main straightaway in North America (3,740 feet). Drivers entered Turn 1 at mind-bending speeds approaching 220 MPH, loading up maximum G-forces on the chassis.
  • Turn 2 (8° Banking): Known as the "Tunnel Turn" because it sits directly over the track's infield vehicle tunnel, this corner was modeled after Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is extremely flat, narrow, and notorious for sudden gusts of wind that could instantly break a car's rear traction and slap it into the concrete wall.
  • Turn 3 (6° Banking): Modeled after the Milwaukee Mile, Turn 3 is exceptionally flat and long. It leads directly back onto the front stretch, meaning getting your speed right out of Turn 3 was crucial—screw up the apex here, and you'd be a sitting duck down the nearly 3/4-mile straight.
Pocono Raceway track map

📍 Pocono Raceway Track Layout: Displaying the unique asymmetric triangle.
Map credit: Stl66dmk / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

⚙️ The Setup Compromise Dilemma:

In a standard oval, race engineers tune the car's suspension and aerodynamic downforce angles to balance for four identical turns. At Pocono, that was completely impossible. If a team set up the car for the high-banked Turn 1, it would slide out of control in the flat Turns 2 and 3. Driving a 900+ HP CART car here meant constantly compromising—fighting understeer in one corner and snapping oversteer in the next.

🎮 N64 Nostalgia: The Twin-Draft Strategy & Phantom Tires

For many of us who grew up in the late 90s, Pocono wasn't just a track we watched on TV—it was a track we mastered on the Nintendo 64! Anyone who played classic racing titles remembers just how legendary this asymmetric triangle was in split-screen multiplayer.

Back then, physics had their own hilarious logic: take a hard hit into the wall, watch your tire fly off, wait a few seconds, and watch it magically "re-spawn" out of nowhere so you could keep racing! But the real secret was mastering the bump-drafting mechanics down Pocono's endless main straightaway to catapult past the AI pack.

🏎️ Collector's Corner: Tame the Tricky Triangle at Home

Whether you want to display an iconic 200+ MPH oval champion on your shelf or battle the asymmetric corners yourself from your gaming setup, we’ve got you covered:

  • 👉 Classic & Modern IndyCar Diecast Models on Amazon — Find stunning, high-quality scale models from Greenlight Collectibles, featuring low-drag superspeedway wing packages and historic 90s liveries.
  • 👉 Retro Gaming Consoles & Racing Gear on Amazon — Ready to test your nerves against high-speed oval drafting? Discover retro handhelds loaded with 16-bit racing classics, or grab racing wheels and games like Gran Turismo 7 on PS5 to master high-speed slipstreaming.

💬 Which Turn is the Deadliest?

Now we want to hear from you! If you were behind the wheel of a 950-HP IndyCar, which turn of the Tricky Triangle would scare you the most—the high-speed entry into Turn 1, or the flat, wind-swept Tunnel Turn 2?

Let's talk racing history in the comments below!

🏁 Series Navigation: Monsters of CART

Explore all 13 legendary circuits from the golden era of 1990s turbocharged CART IndyCar racing:

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