BKR Take on Trucks – Time to tackle the ‘Tricky Triangle’

After cleaning off the dirt from Eldora Speedway after their first dirt race in a truck, the Brad Keselowski Racing teammates head to Pocono Raceway ready to tackle another ‘first’ during their rookie season.

Briscoe and Cindric will compete in the Overton’s 150 on Saturday, and while they’ve both competed at the track before in an ARCA car, they know this time will be totally different in their Ford F-150s.

“I think Pocono is a fun track and the demands are different there for the driver and the crew chief,” said Cindric. “With three distinct turns, you have to give up a little on each one to be able to put together a fast lap. If you concentrate too much on one of them, it can throw your setup off in another.”

For Cindric, who won the pole in his race last year at Pocono, he thinks strategy could come into play in such a short race driving his No. 19 LTi Printing Ford F-150.

“With the stages shorter than most of our other races, I think fuel mileage and pitting strategies could be a big factor in who wins the race,” Cindric said. “You can also have a lot of action on the track, so long yellows could play into how you race.”

For Briscoe, while he’s also driven the track, he knows nothing will be the same this weekend in his No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150.

“I had fun racing at Pocono last year, but racing in a truck will be totally different,” said Briscoe. “You have to get the feel of the truck on the track, and with three distinctive turns, that will be crucial to have a good handling truck.”

Briscoe adds he’s learned a lot so far during his rookie campaign and he hopes to use what he’s learned about driving in the series to help him on Saturday.

“I feel like I’ve gotten better at knowing how to get the balance right in the setup of the truck,” he added. “That way, we can go into fine tuning the truck during practice, and that can only help us get better each race. We have a brand new truck for this race, so I’m ready to get to Pocono.”

What might have been at Eldora

While both Cindric and Briscoe are focused on Pocono, they both look back at their first experience at Eldora with mixed emotions. Briscoe finished third and Cindric came home in 10^th.

“I don’t know if many people know it, but we ran the whole race in third gear,” said Briscoe, who scored his fourth podium finish of the season. “If we could have had fourth gear, I think the result might have been a little different. I had a fun time on the dirt, but wished we could have seen what we could have done with fourth gear.”

For Cindric, he also enjoyed the race and was happy in his first race there.

“I’ve been open throughout my racing career to try racing on different tracks and surfaces, and it was fun,” said Cindric. “I went in to the race wanting to be consistent with my laps, and I feel I did that and the truck was good. We moved up from 17^th to sixth at one point during the race.”