Pack the Schaefer - IndyCar returns to Pocono in 2013 - UPDATE: Fans Mad @ Indycar; Complain to Pocono

This isn't stock car racing news, but it is significant news for a venue that has had stock car racing only for the past 23 years.

Pocono Raceway, onetime home of the famed Shaefer 500 for champ cars, has announced that the IndyCar Series will race in 2013 at the triangular track built by the Doctors Joe and Rose Mattioli.

That scrambling you hear over around Franklin, Tennessee may be our RR member, TMC and his famed Circle loading their coolers with Schaefer in anticipation of this historic event.

Rumors also continue to fly that the series is once again up for sale. Time will tell. I hope the IndyCar return to Pocono is successful for all parties.

Pocono return celebrates IndyCar history

By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
Associated Press Sports
updated 1:39 p.m. ET Oct. 1, 2012

IndyCar driver Ed Carpenter had the chance to take a drive around Pocono Raceway, and promptly handed the car keys to racing great Mario Andretti.

With Pocono officially back on the IndyCar schedule after a 23-year absence, Carpenter wanted to pick up as many tips as possible from someone with experience at "The Tricky Triangle." Andretti was all too happy to turn some laps at Monday's event because "I am too damn old to drive this thing" in next July's race.

The return to Pocono is being celebrated as a nod to IndyCar's history and tradition. Pocono's three corners were designed in 1965 to model corners at Indianapolis, Milwaukee and now-defunct Trenton, and fans have always considered the track an important venue in open wheel racing.

"It was music to my ears when some of the noise began flying around we might be coming back," said Andretti, who lives in Pennsylvania. "This facility means not only a great deal to me personally, but also to the Northeast area fans that have been here since the beginning. The drivers will love this place - the challenges it presents are just second to none as far as a superspeedway. There's nothing but good things ahead."

Carpenter recognized that when he entered the infield, where IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard and Pocono CEO Brandon Igdalsky on Monday celebrated the series return.

"Just pulling through the tunnel and coming into the facility, you get the feeling that this is a special place, the same kind of feeling that I get in Indianapolis, so I can't wait to get on track here in an IndyCar," said Carpenter.

With the return to Pocono comes the return of the "Triple Crown" challenge, which will award $1 million to a driver that wins the Indianapolis 500, the 400-miler at Pocono and the season finale at Fontana, Calif. The challenge will give $250,000 if a driver wins two of the three races.

"If you are going to bring history back, then you bring back Pocono and the Triple Crown," Bernard said. "That's what fans have been asking for the three years I've been here."

Pocono was part of a Triple Crown from 1971-1980 that included the Indianapolis 500, Pocono 500, and California 500 at Ontario. Al Unser in 1978 was the only driver to win all three in the same season. Ontario was closed in 1980, and replaced with the Michigan 500 through 1989, when Pocono stopped hosting open wheel racing.

But Igdalsky said fans had been vocal in wanting IndyCar back at the track.

"The excitement level is through the roof," Igdalsky said.

The race will only be 400 miles instead of the traditional 500 because Bernard wanted it on ABC, which gave IndyCar a three-hour coverage window.

Pocono was one of two new venues announced Sunday night by Bernard on a 19-race schedule for next season. The schedule includes doubleheader races at Detroit, Toronto and Houston, which is the other new venue.

A proposal for a street race in Providence, R.I., did not make the schedule because Bernard said promoters "ran out of time" to finalize a deal for the 2013 season and Bernard said he's not likely to add any more events for next year.

The scheduling announcements were threatened to be overshadowed Monday by a report that the IndyCar Series is considering an offer to sell to a group of team owners who had pooled their resources. Jeff Belskus, president and CEO of Hulman & Co. and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corp., denied the report Monday and said the series "is not for sale" and the board has not received or considered any offers to purchase the series.

"The racing in 2012 showcased great competition on track and added to the foundation for growing the series," he said in a statement. "The just-announced 2013 schedule includes several new twists that could make the racing even more exciting. The combination of the return of nearly all the 2012 venues, including all the ovals, the addition of new tracks and the revival of the Triple Crown award make this one of the most exciting schedules in recent memory."

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

I've already hit up Brandon Igdalsky and Dean Metropoulus (one of Pabst Brewing's owners) on Twitter to encourage them to get Schaefer involved somehow. Clearly they won't be the race's title sponsor, but there simply HAS to be some sort of participation. I've never been to Pocono - for any event. But if somehow Schaefer signed on, I may indeed need to start checking the family calendar and flight schedules.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

I hope your efforts bear fruit. Pocono is a great venue.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

I know I won't be able to make the 2013 race but hope I can attend several of those that follow. I've run the all of the road courses at Pocono and have fond memories of the track. I've always found the facilities in excellent condition and admire the Mattioli family for remaining independent (and solvent) in the face of great pressures. As one of my home tracks, it always hurt me to hear NASCAR fans talk about the boring races there. I held hopes that Indycar would make it back and find more satisfaction with things. The repave has even reduced some of the whining from stock car fans.

Nov 2, 6:04 PM EDT

Pocono hears from fans upset with IndyCar

By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer

The fan feedback at Pocono Raceway was euphoric a month ago, when IndyCar announced its return after a 23-year absence.

Now the fans are contacting the track to express their frustration over the departure of CEO Randy Bernard, who worked closely all year with Pocono in returning one of IndyCar's original tracks to the 2013 schedule. Bernard stepped down as CEO of IndyCar on Sunday night after an emergency meeting of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway board of directors.

Brandon Igdalsky, the president and CEO of Pocono, said Friday he's not having buyer's remorse on the three-year contract he announced trackside Oct. 1 with Bernard and Mario Andretti.

"As the new tenant on the schedule, it is a little disturbing, as is the fan reaction," Igdalsky said. "We've had a lot of fans contact us. The fans really loved Randy. But we'll move forward as we have to."

IndyCar was a fixture at Pocono from 1971 until 1989, but fell off the schedule when track owner Joseph "Doc" Mattioli tired of the politics of open-wheel racing. It took 23 years for the return, which was brokered by Igdalsky, his grandson, and Bernard, who understood the importance of tradition to the fan base he'd catered to in his three years as head of IndyCar.

In bringing Pocono back to the schedule, Bernard also resurrected the "Triple Crown" challenge, a three-race competition in 2013 for $1 million, which Pocono was a part of through 1989.

Igdalsky said Friday he understands IndyCar made a business decision, and is taking a wait-and-see approach on a relationship that was primarily with Bernard.

"I've talked to Randy this week, and we'll just go forward," he said. Although Igdalsky said he'd heard from members of Bernard's staff, routine in the course of business, he'd yet to hear anything from Jeff Belskus, CEO of Indianapolis Motor Speedway who also took over Bernard's role.

"We've not heard anything above and beyond the routine calls, but maybe we'll hear something in the next week or so," Igdalsky said.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"