Pocono Raceway won’t have the PJ1 traction compound on its race surface for this weekend’s NASCAR racing, the track confirmed Tuesday to NBC Sports.
The possibility of it being used was raised Monday by Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, in an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “The Morning Drive.”
“There will be no traction compound applied to Pocono for this event weekend,” track CEO Nick Igdalsky said in a statement. Igdalsky left the door open for the compound’s use for the July 29 race weekend at the 2.5-mile track.
“We have entered into a process with NASCAR, OEM’s, and Goodyear to explore this option in future events,” Igdalsky said. “Nothing has been determined at this time.”
On “The Morning Drive,” Miller was asked about plans for more tracks to use the compound.
“There’s ongoing talks,” Miller said. “New Hampshire I believe is on the plan for doing it again. The only new track that hasn’t done it yet that I know we’re having some discussion about is potentially Pocono and I think there will be a plan I believe for just Turn 3 if I’m not mistaken. I’m not in all those early discussion, but it kind of bubbled up that there was some talks about Pocono. I don’t know exactly what the plan is.”
Should Pocono ever use the traction compound, it would join New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway in utilizing it in an effort to improve chances for passing.
Charlotte has used it for all its races since last year’s Coca-Cola 600.
“It really works well at Bristol to accomplish what was set out to accomplish at Bristol,” Miller said. “I think the jury’s starting to be out on whether or not it’s actually accomplishing what we need at some of these other places. ...
“There will be ongoing dialogue about how we use it. We’ve been trying to get a lot more scientific with it with monitoring the grip of the surface before and after and how much it diminishes as cars run on it.”