LONG POND, Pocono -- The eDimensional Cup Series returns to action this weekend for the Pocono 300 at Pocono Raceway. After last weekend was one of the rare off weekends for drivers, teams and fans, business picks up again this weekend with a grueling 120-lap event at the 2.5-mile tri-oval located in the hills of Pennsylvania.
The beautiful landsight, hills and woods of Pennsylvania are one good thing why teams like to go to Pocono. The large track with its three distinctive turns are another and will come to play the most important role this weekend. Only the driver that can master all three corners better than the other teams will be the one to prevail.
Ben Fischer comes into the weekend with the first win of the season in his bag. He beat Changyoun Kim at Dover two weeks ago, preventing a runaway from Kim that has already four wins. David Topie was third and now he returns to the track where he got a strong pole last year.
While the three are considered favorites again, Jeroen Anema has some ground to make up after a dismal 19th place finish at Dover, that cost him a lot of ground in the points battle. But points are not a primary focus for Anema right now, as the dutch sophomore driver admitted.
"I don't know. We're racing for wins right now. We need to win some races. The 64 (Changyoun Kim) already got four and we haven't had a win since last fall. So that's what we're racing and working real hard for right now."
"If you get second or third in a race doesn't really matter, if you're solidly in the top-eight like we're right now. We just want to get ourselves ready for the Chase and win races," Anema said.
Anema and 24 other drivers will get their chance again Saturday when also one new team will be joining the grid. Lone Star Racing announced it has hired Harrison Widelitz to run a part-time program in the organization's third car, the No. 12 U.S. Army Dodge Charger.
Widelitz has come up his way through the ranks of other stock car racing sanctioning bodies and will try to prove he belongs in the series this weekend. U.S. Army is said to support the No. 12 entry in the races Widelitz runs the car.
Other candidates to possibly pilote the car later in the season are Michael McKay and Chris Emry, even those two names weren't confirmed officially by Lone Star Racing.
The points battle has not changed a lot recently as Changyoun Kim continues to have a solid cushion on runner-up in points Tom Splain and Jeroen Anema. Ben Fischer is fourth after his win.
The Pocono 300 goes over a distance of 120 laps / 300 miles and will take the green flag shortly after 9 am ET. The event also marks a new era in eDimensional Cup Series when two races are held at the Pennsylvania track every year.
After the event, the eDimensional Cup Series takes another off week before going into a five-race stretch heading to the summer break.
