Planning for the facility began in 1957 when Racing, Inc. was formed by Pennsylvania fans dissatisfied with local racing amenities. After searching more than 30 tracts of land, the group under David Montgomery began purchasing acreage near Blakeslee in 1962, eventually amassing over 1,025 acres. A series of construction delays, legal disputes with contractors, and financing difficulties pushed the opening back by years.
The venue partially opened in May 1969 on a 0.750 mi (1.207 km) oval for supermodified racing, with a short road course opening a few months later. The signature tri-oval was not completed until late 1971 after Montgomery departed and Joseph Mattioli — a former Philadelphia dentist who had helped finance the construction — took control as CEO.
The tri-oval's design is a deliberate composite of other circuits. Track designer and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rodger Ward shaped Turn 1 after Trenton Speedway (14 degrees of banking), Turn 2 after Indianapolis Motor Speedway (8 degrees), and Turn 3 after the Milwaukee Mile (6 degrees). The result is a layout where each corner requires a different approach, placing unique demands on car setup and driver technique.
The tri-oval opened with an official ribbon-cutting on June 19, 1971, and held its first race on July 3, with Mark Donohue winning a 500-mile USAC-sanctioned open-wheel event. The first major stock car race followed on September 25, 1971, also USAC-sanctioned.
Pocono's early years were marked by financial instability. When USAC's stock car contract expired in 1973, Mattioli considered selling. NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. persuaded him to stay in racing, reportedly handing Mattioli a business card with an inspirational quote from Adlai Stevenson II. The venue hosted its first NASCAR Cup Series event on August 4, 1974, with Richard Petty winning. That race ultimately anchored the track's long-term survival.
The late 1970s brought further turmoil. The 1979 CART-USAC split fractured the open-wheel event, with CART-affiliated drivers boycotting the USAC-sanctioned Pocono 500. Pocono filed an antitrust suit against CART for $6.3 million. In 1980, the track was leased to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a year to stabilize its finances. A second annual NASCAR Cup weekend was added in 1982, and CART settled with the track out of court in the same year on a five-year agreement.
By the late 1980s, open-wheel drivers were criticizing the track surface as unsafe and bumpy. The Pocono 500 was removed from the CART schedule after 1989, a departure Mattioli attributed to a lack of profitability.
Pocono underwent sustained expansion through the 1990s. Two new grandstands added 10,100 seats in 1991-1992. The tri-oval was fully repaved for the first time since opening in 1996. Between 1990 and 2000, Mattioli spent an average of $3 million per year on facility upgrades. SAFER barriers were added around the outside perimeter in 2004 following the push for improved safety after Dale Earnhardt's death at the 2001 Daytona 500.
IndyCar racing returned to Pocono in 2013 after a 22-year gap, but was eventually dropped again after 2019 following safety concerns tied to the fatal 2015 crash of Justin Wilson (struck by a flying nose cone) and the 2018 crash that paralyzed driver Robert Wickens.
Joseph Mattioli retired as CEO in August 2011, succeeded by his grandson Brandon Igdalsky. The track underwent a full repave in 2012. Brandon resigned in 2017, and his brother Nick became CEO.
In 2022, NASCAR reduced the track's annual footprint from two Cup weekends to one. Pocono now hosts one annual NASCAR weekend anchored by the Cup Series Great American Getaway 400.
In August 2012, during the Pennsylvania 400, lightning struck the facility and killed one spectator while injuring nine others. In 2015, IndyCar driver Justin Wilson died after being struck on the helmet by debris from another car's nose cone during the ABC Supply 500. The accident accelerated IndyCar's safety review of the circuit.
Pocono Raceway occupies a singular place in American oval racing because of its three-corner geometry and the correspondingly unusual chassis compromises it demands. With no two turns alike in banking angle or radius, it rewards balanced cars that can trade competitiveness in one corner for it in another — a setup challenge that has produced memorable strategic racing over five decades.