Plans to re-open Interstate 95 in Philadelphia hit a snag when rain hit the area. That’s when officials at Pocono Raceway saved the day.
On Thursday, Pocono Raceway brought a jet dryer used to keep the track dry to Philadelphia to help keep the scheduled rebuild of a section of Interstate-95 on track as the area experiences rain.
On Sunday, June 11, “a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline … overturned. The crash caused … gasoline to leak into the roadway and catch fire,” which resulted in the bridge collapse.
“We received a call from Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll yesterday,” Pocono Raceway President Ben May told Lehigh Valley News.
May’s friendly relationships with Carroll and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro helped spur the idea of using the huge dryer, which is used at Pocono Raceway to keep the track dry on race days.
“I’m sure a lot of people don’t know this, but NASCAR race cars don’t have tread on the tires,” said May. “They’re slick, so they can’t race with any type of moisture… Between NASCAR and the racetracks, we have a lot of equipment to dry the race track in a very quick fashion.”
Gov. Shapiro set a date of this weekend (June 24-25) for the reopening of I-95 but rain in the area would have made that impractical without help from Pocono Raceway.
“It has been all hands on deck,” Shapiro told WTXF in Philadelphia. “I said the other day it’s the ingenuity of [Delaware County] meets the grit of Philly. Let’s layer on top of that the ingenuity of Pocono Raceway and the amazing guys at NASCAR up there helping us out at 95.”