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Part of me wonders if someone got their sums wrong, and the wall alignment there outside of Turn 2 is too close to vertical, and not tipped in enough to be at 90 degrees to the track surface.
As NASCAR has shown, you can have a "big one" pretty much anywhere except for Martinsville. And a number of the drivers have pointed out that guys need to chill a bit in the opening laps at Pocono. I think it's also fair to point out again, as mentioned earlier, that something nasty-looking tends to happen most years at some point during the Month of May at the Speedway; of course, just about any long-standing racetrack has had a fair few bad accidents over the years. (I'm not saying what happened today was "okay", but I'm not so sure it's a massive outlier, either.)
And yes, I think having more practice for a long race, especially at a super speedway, is likely a good idea.
Another track note I would make is, I don't think those new paved aprons to the wall on the other two straights are exactly helping. That is, they give even more of a perception that there's unlimited space to work with, which psychologically encourages riskier driving.
I don't find Pocono any more terrifying than Indy. Texas and the other 1.5-milers are a bit different, with how those tracks are more corner-radius limited, leading to tighter margins at almost the same speeds and more opportunity to pinball off of walls, the flat apron, and other cars. And Pocono certainly isn't space-limited outright like Dover. (I think there was a reason USAC only went to that track once, in 1969, and the same with Daytona in 1959 and Darlington in 1956.)
And Pocono is one of my favorite ovals; it doesn't feel like a "copy" of someplace else, and it puts on excellent racing when the guys can keep it together. I feel like it's necessary for Indy Cars to have another true super speedway aside from Indy itself, and as for the aforementioned piece, Richmond kind of feels like it would be a "copy" of Iowa; personally, I'd rather see a return of Milwaukee or Loudon. (Maybe somebody needs to build a new trapezoidal oval in the vein of the now-defunct Rio or Rockingham, UK, or change up that form somehow.)
I know it won't happen, but I'm curious just how quickly a modern Indy Car could lap the "flat" Rafaela super speedway oval in Argentina. (Now that place would have scope for some mad slipstreaming battles.)
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