((Sorry for the delay, guys...had a bunch of RL issues come on me at once. which kept me from coming up with the results until now. Hopefully they can all go away and leave me to carry on with life and let me post the results from the next race on time. - CC))

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"Live from the Pocono Raceway, this is FRN...the voice of FURCAR."

One of the more unique venues on the FURCAR Furry Cup Series schedule played host to the circut this weekend as they made a stop at the Pocono Raceway to take to the 2.5-mile speedway. Pocono is unique in that it is a triangle-shaped circuit instead of the traditional oval, with three different corners banked at three different levels, and the three straightaways are three different lengths, with the main straight being wide enough to handle six cars comfortably. Thus, the drivers would have to take three different approaches to navigate the three different corners...but the destination for everyone is the same: Victory Lane.

When the cars rolled out onto the track to start practice, there was a new face out there with a new team as William Megarda took the #17 Terrapin Racing entry onto the track looking to make his FURCAR debut, with former driver and now car owner kenku watching from the pit box. The rookie driver looked good for the most part, keeping up with the field and finishing the session in a respectable 8th place, with Draco Potens posting the fastest lap and looking to kickstart a 2015 campaign that he would like to hit the reset button on if he could. After practice, Kenku pulled Megarda aside to give him a few words of advice on how to tackle the tricky triangular track...and whatever the fox told him, it worked as his first lap in qualifying was a blazing 177.595 mph. He had to wait for the entirety of the session before he could celebrate as a first-time pole winner, though Potens backed up his speed in practice with a time only a couple hundredths of a second away from Megarda's time. Croco Chilton would start 3rd, which for him was as good as a pole considering the struggles his team has had in qualifying this year.

Race day would arrive, and in true Pocono fashion, the start of the race was a chaotic dash toward Turn 1, and Megarda would lead the pack into the corner...and the first lap of his FURCAR career would be his first lap ever led in his FURCAR career. However, that lead would be short lived as Chilton would draft off of the 17 going down the second straightaway, or "Long Pond straight" as it is known as at the track. Croco would pull away, with Potens and Jackie Caldoon not that far behind him, while Megarda woul start to slip back in the pack a little bit. He was relaying to the crew that the car was not turning the way he wanted it to coming off of Turn 3 and was losing speed down the frontstretch. His crew chief was worried about his young driver, so he called him down pit road early as the race progressed on, with Potens taking the lead at lap 15 and leading his first laps since DAytona.

The race was fairly clean for the first third, with a round of green flag pit stops to test the crews and drivers before a debris caution came out at lap 50. It was apparent that the dominant car today was the #15 Ford Fusion of Croco Chilton, as he was able to get the lead away from Potens on the restart, with Iceroad Lion and Ty Vulpintaur starting to make moves toward the front. Megarda, the pole sitter, was comfortable in the middle of the pack, but at lap 70, he would make a rookie mistake in Turn 2, or the "Tunnel Turn" as he dipped beneath Jackie Caldoon to take 5th. Caldoon came down and she gave him enough room, but Megarda got down too low and spun the car out. To make matters worse, he ended up hitting the wall and causing significant damage to his car, ending his day a little earlier than he would have liked. Still, he chalked it up as a "dumb rookie error" and would learn from it for next time. Meanwhile, a new contender would emerge after pit stops as Kasey the Husky, who had slipped past the 02 and 17 while they were battling and holding on to take 5th just as the yellow came out, would take the lead after his crew got him out in 12.2 seconds, and everyone took four tires.

When the green flag came out, Kasey would jump out to a decent lead, with Chilton and Iceroad not too far behind him. At the halfway point, the 15 was right on Kasey's bumper, with a hungry crocodile nipping at him wherever he could but Kasey was able to keep his cool. But after a few more laps of this, the husky pulled aside exiting Turn 1 to let Croco go, and he took full advantage, pulling out to a sizable gap. However, the bad luck bug would bite Draco Potens again as he came on the radio at lap 86, telling his crew that there might be something wrong with the motor and dropping back through the field in a hurry. Two laps later, the engine on the #24 would expire in a cloud of white smoke, and the yellow flag would come out so that the track crews could come out and clean the track up. Another round of pit stops would come, and it would be Croco that came out in front, followed by Kasey, Coco Bennington, Iceroad, and Shockey Rai, who was starting to creep into the picture. The green flag came out, and once again the field would be chasing the tail of the 15 as the laps wound down.

It looked like there would be another round of green flag pit stops, but the caution would fly at lap 122 as Ty Vulpintaur would have a right front tire go down in the middle of Turn 1, sending him careening into the wall. He would pull the TCI Chevrolet behind the wall, where the damage was too severe. After a couple laps of green flag racing, the yellow flag would come out again for Dart Wuffy and Wildfox getting into it exiting Turn 1, though neither of them suffered any significant damage and would continue on. The green would come out again at lap 133, only to go back to yellow three laps later for Jackie Caldoon spinning out in Turn 1, which seemed to be the calamity corner this afternoon. During this time, everyone would come into the pit road...with Coco Bennington taking the lead after taking only right-side tires. Mitch Brown would also utilize this strategy and come out 2nd, but Chilton, Rai, Kasey and the rest of the field were right there with four fresh Goodyears. When racing resumed, those drivers that took four tires would make quick work of Bennington and Brown, though Wildfox would find misfortune again at lap 144 as he would get turned around by E.J. Stripes in...you guessed it, Turn 1. Stripes hit the #34 hard enough to bust the radiator, though a lot of the damage came when he hit the wall. The aerodynamic damage would enough to render Wildfox a spectator on the track, as he couldn't keep up with the field on the restart.

Meanwhile, up front there was still no change as Croco Chilton continued to drive away, and it would be the crocodile cruising over the final 13 laps to take his 2nd win of the season. Shockey Rai and Kasey the Husky would battle it out for 2nd, and in the end it would be the Raichu taking the position. Iceroad Lion would finish 4th, while Bennington on her two right side tires would hang on for 5th. Once in Victory Lane, a very relieved Croco would celebrate with his team and share how good it was to have something go right for a change as he had been the victim of circumstances over the past few races before saying that "maybe they should call this place 'Crocono' cause I really love this track and I've done so well here." We'll promise not to laugh TOO much...teehee!

Even with the win, Croco's rivals were able to salvage good days in terms of points, with Shockey Rai taking the season lead by 2 points over Kasey the Husky. From 3rd-place Eddie T. Wolf, who finished mid-pack, to 9th-place Croco, the gap is only 20 points as the season is still young and anyone could emerge as a serious contender. In the overall standings, the gap would stay razor-thin as Iceroad Lion would jump back into the overall lead, but the distance between him and 3rd place Wildfox is only 12 points, while the Crocosaur Racing teammates leapfrogged Ty Vulpintaur, putting him back to 6th with Coco Bennington leading her car owner Croco by 5 points, and Ty by 10. Next week, the FURCAR Furry Cup Series revs up the Motor City and will take on the fastest track in all of FURCAR, the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway, which is just a short drive away from Detroit in the beautiful Irish Hills region of southern Michigan. Will we see a new speed record? We shall find out in time...

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Pole Award Winner

17 - William Megarda (50.677 sec. / 177.595 mph)

Race Results

1. 15 - Croco Chilton (3) - 192
2. 54 - Shockey Rai (12) - 187
3. 35 - Kasey the Husky (10) - 185
4. 40 - Iceroad Lion (5) - 183
5. 62 - Coco Bennington (11) - 181
6. 88 - Dart Wuffy (14) - 178
7. 41 - Mitch Brown (13) - 177 (tie with 53 broken by higher top-5)
8. 53 - Eddie T. Wolf (9) - 177
9. 02 - Jackie Caldoon (4) - 169 (tie with 34 broken by top-5s)
10. 34 - Wildfox (7) - 169
11. 7 - E.J. Stripes (8) - 161 (DNF - Engine)
12. 6 -Ty Vulpintaur (6) - 159 (DNF - Accident)
13. 24 - Draco Potens (2) - 150 (DNF - Engine)
14. 17 - William Megarda (1) - 148 (DNF - Accident)

Perfect Picks: Truex Jr., Harvick, Larson, Kyle Busch, T. Dillon, Allgaier - 212 points

Season Standings (after 2 of 12 races)

1, Shockey Rai (366, 1 win)
2. Kasey the Husky (-2, -)
3. Eddie T. Wolf (-30, 0)
4. Wildfox (-35, 0)
5. Iceroad Lion (-37, 0)
6. Coco Bennington (-39, 0)
7. Mitch Brown (-39, 0)
8. Draco Potens (-53, 0)
9. Croco Chilton (-55, 1)
10. Ty Vulpintaur (-66, 0)
11. Dart Wuffy (-70, 0)
12. Jackie Caldoon (-90, 0)
13. E.J. Stripes (-108, 0)
14. William Megarda (-218, 0)

Overall Standings (after 14 of 36 races)

1. Iceroad Lion (2443, 1 win)
2. Eddie T. Wolf (-4, 2)
3. Wildfox (-12, 2)
4. Coco Bennington (-129, 1)
5. Croco Chilton (-134, 2)
6. Ty Vulpintaur (-139, 2)
7. Dart Wuffy (-181, 1)
8. Shockey Rai (-204, 2)
9. Jackie Caldoon (-210, 0)
10. Draco Potens (-227, 0)
11. Mitch Brown (-338, 0)
12. Redstar Husky (-715, 0)
13. Kasey the Husky (-1915, 0)
14. E.J. Stripes (-1988, 1)
15. Furry Mike (-2266, 0)
16. William Megarda (-2295, 0)