Axalta presents the Pocono 400

The Axalta presents the Pocono 400 is a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held annually at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The race is the first of two NASCAR Cup Series races at Pocono Raceway, with the other being the Overton's 400. First held as a 500-mile (800 km) race during the 1982 season, it served as a replacement for the 400-mile (640 km) race at Texas World Speedway. Starting in 2012, the race distance was reduced to 400 miles

Notes[edit]

 * 2000 and 2016: Race was moved back from Sunday to Monday due to rain.
 * 2005 and 2010: Race was extended due to a NASCAR Overtime finish.
 * 2007: Race was shortened due to rain/darkness.
 * 2012: Race distance was reduced from 500 miles to 400 miles.

Notable races[edit]

 * 1982: Dale Earnhardt flipped over Tim Richmond going into Turn 1, and suffered a neck injury that he hid until the end of the season. Because of a 1984 Busch Clash crash involving Ricky Rudd where he hid his injuries, NASCAR changed rules later that season mandating medical clearance from NASCAR officials before racing.
 * 1988: Bobby Allison reported a flat tire before the race, he tried to complete 1 lap, but he did not. Driving into the Tunnel Turn, Allison blew the tire and slammed the Outside wall. To make things worse, Jocko Maggiacomo t-boned Allison in the driver's side door and Allison suffered career-ending injuries.
 * 2000: Jeremy Mayfield, had a run on Dale Earnhardt and he intimidated Earnhardt out of the lead giving Mayfield the win. It was a popular win among the fans and Mayfield said in his Victory Lane interview that he wanted to "rattle his cage".
 * 2006: Denny Hamlin became the first rookie to sweep at Pocono.
 * 2009: Tony Stewart became the first owner-driver to win since Ricky Rudd at Martinsville in 1998. It was also the first race in NASCAR's history to introduce double file restarts.
 * 2010: On the Long Pond Straightaway, Kasey Kahne spun across the track on the last lap and went airborne, collecting Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman and others. Denny Hamlin won the race, which had been delayed by several hours for rain.
 * 2012: 22-year-old Joey Logano muscled his way past his mentor, 53-year-old Mark Martin, to score his second Cup win (first in a race that was not truncated) on a freshly repaved Pocono Raceway, snapping a 104-race winless skid. Logano started on the pole with a new track record, led 49 of the 160 laps, and won by about a second to win the first scheduled 400 mile long race at Pocono. Mark Martin, for the seventh time in his career, finished second at the Tricky Triangle.
 * 2013: Qualifying was rained out, so points leader Jimmie Johnson started on the pole. Johnson dominated the race, leading 128 laps, and held off Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the last laps to snap a nine-year winless Pocono streak. This marked the last NASCAR race for Jason Leffler before he was killed later that week in a sprint car accident at Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey.
 * 2014: Brad Keselowski dominated the race, leading 95 of 160 laps, but Earnhardt Jr. passed him with four laps to go to take the victory when Keselowski tried to use the lapped car of Danica Patrick to clean trash from his grille. Earnhardt Jr. became the fourth straight different driver in the Hendrick Motorsports team to win at Pocono, after Jeff Gordon in August 2012, and Johnson and Kahne in the June and August 2013 races respectively.
 * 2015: Martin Truex, Jr. dominated the race, leading 97 of 160 laps en route to his victory at Pocono, The race was aired on Fox Sports Television for the first time on FS1 after eight years on TNT, Brad Keselowski, running seventh, made an unscheduled stop on lap 21. Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano and Paul Menard were tagged for speeding on pit road. Kenseth and Logano were forced to serve a drive-through penalty. Menard was forced to serve a stop-go penalty for speeding in all sections after his pit box. He had to come a second time for speeding again. He cut down his left-front tire and came down pit road for a third time. Truex, Jr. made his first pit stop on lap 29 and handed the lead to Edwards. Edwards pitted on lap 30 and handed the lead to Kasey Kahne, who made his stop on lap 32. Then the lead was given back to Kevin Harvick.[3]
 * 2017: Ryan Blaney won his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career win after passing Kyle Busch with 10 laps to go and holding off Kevin Harvick for the final 9 laps of the race.