FYI WIRZ: NASCAR's Top 5 Talk Race 14 at Tricky Pocono and More

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) transports its convoy of haulers to Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania for the 5-hour Energy 500. The race should require 200 laps on the 2.5-mile tri-oval track with 14 degree banking and will be broadcast by TNT this Sunday at 1p.m. 

The difficult Pocono track is not as likely to be crash-free like last week’s race on the wide and shorter Kansas track.

Crashes this year are also likely to be less dangerous in Long Pond owing to improvements to the wall and more. NASCAR driver Gregg Biffle commented on the new Safer Barriers and a catch-fence that have been added to Pocono Raceway.     

“Probably 10 years overdue,” Biffle said. “The racetrack, I applaud them. Certainly to have taken action, we're extremely happy about that to get that change and make that change before something bad happens.”

Halfway to the Chase for the Sprint Cup the top five NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch talk about Pocono, strategy and more.

FYI WIRZ is the select presentation of motorsports topics by Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com. Content is for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained from official release materials provided by NASCAR."

Carl Edwards (No. 99 Ford)

On racing Pocono:

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“I really like racing at Pocono. The first time I ran there I won so it’s been a favorite ever since. It is a very difficult track, both mentally and physically, and it taxes every part of the car as well.

We’re going into Pocono with a big point lead so we are definitely going for the win. With a cushion in the points we are able to gamble a bit more and I can drive more aggressively to go for the win."

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Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Chevrolet)

On calculating fuel mileage:

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“Really it’s kind of a basic science. As the runs develop, you see some trends based on speed of the laps. Really what happens is they plug the gas tank into the car, assume it’s full, judge how much is possibly laying on the ground and then weigh the can and figure that all out through kind of eye balling it and kind of the weight of the gas can when it’s done to see what’s in there.

It’s not a very exact science and it’s amazing how close the guys get when they say you’re going to run out on the backstretch and damn if you don’t.”

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 Chevrolet)

On having a better year:

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“I just enjoy competing where I feel like I should be able to compete. I have an opinion, personally about what kind of talent I’ve got and where I should be running in the races.

When I’m close to that or doing that or matching that then I get happy and I feel content and satisfied and obviously this year has been a better year for me. It could be even better and hopefully we’ll get to that next level, but for the most part definitely having fun.

Definitely having more fun. When the race weekend sneaks up on you week after week after week, you’re not so upset about it. When Thursday and Friday rides around, creeps up on you out of nowhere, you’re not disappointed about it, you’re like, ‘Alright man, let’s go to the next one and let’s see what we can do. Let’s see if we can go out there and make some more good things happen.”

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Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Chevrolet)

On racing Pocono:

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“I enjoy driving the track. It’s fun to try to get your car set up right because the corners are so different and there are some bumps and things that give the race track character. This part of the season over the past several years has been really good.

Pocono’s a fun race track to race on. It’s got that unique patch in turn 3 that seemed to kind of lose some grip last year, so hopefully that’s gone and it’ll be kind of even from top to bottom as far as which groove you choose.

It’s a fun track, and really rough in Turn 1 on the bottom. A lot of times you run through the middle. If your car’s working really good you can run anywhere you want through Turn 1. The tunnel turn is a really fast corner that you run right at the bottom. It’s got a really big curve at the bottom that you really don’t want to hit at all, because it jumps you up in the air. It’s a challenging race track, and has three totally different turns.”

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Kyle Busch (No. 18 Toyota)

On racing Pocono:

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“The hardest part of the track, for me, is probably turn one, and then turn two is the second-hardest, and then turn three is the third-hardest. Turn three, last year, because of the patch they laid down.

We couldn’t go down low and get underneath somebody and get a run on them because, when you come off the corner, you’re 8 to 10 mph slower than the guy on your outside, and they’re just going to blow right by you going down the straightaway.

Most of your passing is going to be done probably through turn one and off of turn one and getting into turn two, if somebody can get a good run off of turn two, get back up high and get in line to get on that patch getting into turn three.”

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Photo credit: Dwight Drum at Racetake.com