The 2012 Pennsylvania 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on August 5, 2012 at the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Contested over 98 laps of 160, it was the twenty-first race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. On August 10, 2011, track president Brandon Igdalsky announced that the race will be shortened from 500 miles to 400 miles.^[4] Jeff Gordon, from the Hendrick Motorsports racing team, won his first race of the season while Kasey Kahne finished second. Martin Truex Jr. clinched the third position. The win gave Gordon his sixth at the track, at the time breaking a record shared with Bill Elliott for most wins at the track, and has since been broken by Denny Hamlin.^[5][6]

The race was marred by a lightning strike which killed a spectator and injured nine others as Gordon was on his way to victory lane. The race was not red flagged (suspended) until rain hit the race track after 98 laps, 42 minutes after thunderstorm warnings were issued.^[7] The incident led to stringent policy standards for Automobile Competition Committee for the United States members (including NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA and NHRA) regarding lightning around racing venues, consistent with other sporting venues.

After the race, a spectator was killed by a lightning strike, while nine others (one critical) were injured.^[24][25] The nine injured spectators were taken to area hospitals, and five of them were later taken to local hospitals for examination.^[7] The track had tweeted for fans to "seek shelter as severe lightning and heavy winds are in our area",^[26] and the fans were instructed by public address systems at the track to take cover. However, fans posted on the track's Facebook page that they could not hear the warnings, and a fan tweeted to the Associated Press that the noise levels at races are so loud that little could hear the public address system. The race wasn't called until 42 minutes after the warning, leading to questions over whether or not NASCAR should have ended the race earlier or stopped the race prior to Lap 81 (which would have led to a Monday morning resumption of the race as less than half distance was reached).^[27] Race winner Jeff Gordon stated that he had heard a crack while he was on pit road.^[26]

"You could tell it was very close. I mean, that's the thing that's going to take away from the victory, is the fact that somebody was affected by that."^[26]

— Jeff Gordon

The victim, 41-year-old Brian Zimmerman from Moosic, Pennsylvania, was standing next to his car at the track's parking lot behind the Turn 3 grandstand. Bystanders had attempted to perform CPR on him until paramedics arrived. Zimmerman was later taken to the track's medical facility, and was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 6:11 pm. The victim that was in critical condition after getting struck was later in stable condition on August 6.^[28]

The American flag at the track was flown at half-mast the morning after the race.^[28] Pocono Raceway later established the "Pennsylvania 400 Memorial Fund" to help benefit the victims of the strikes.^[29]

On August 5, 2014, Zimmerman's wife sued NASCAR, seeking damages for negligence and wrongful death.^[30] A jury deemed that Pocono International Raceway was negligent, but did not find that this negligence was responsible for the death of Zimmerman. NASCAR was not found to be negligent in any of the lawsuits.^[31][32]

As a result, ACCUS-FIA, the governing body on motorsport in the United States that consists of the major motorsport sanctioning bodies (NASCAR, INDYCAR, IMSA, NHRA, SCCA, USAC, WKA), has adopted rules on lightning consistent with other sporting events. This applies to all motorsport in the United States governed by ACCUS-FIA members. If, at any time, weather radar detects lightning inside a 13 kilometer (eight mile) radius of the venue, spectator warnings are immediately delivered to clear the grandstands by public address system and video boards at the circuit. The race is immediately suspended, with a 30-minute suspension clock starting immediately. The safety car is deployed and leads the field to pit lane, with an immediate red flag. All race marshals are immediately sent indoors to a safe area, most transported by safety trucks. Teams then cover cars (removing electrical equipment) with drivers and crews (including media) headed to an indoor media centre. For each lightning strike inside the radius (marked on the weather radar), the 30-minute clock is reset. Activity may not resume until the 13 km area suffers no lightning strikes for 30 consecutive minutes.^[33]

During the 2014 INDYCAR Barber round, the event was delayed because of lightning before the 3 PM CT start, leading to the race being shortened to 1 hour, 40 minutes. At the Detroit INDYCAR Race 1 in 2015, the race ended because of lightning after 48 of 70 laps. At the 2017 IMSA Road America round for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, the two-hour race ended at 1:20 because of lightning. At NASCAR's 2017 Brantley Gilbert Big Machine 400, the lightning policy was implemented on Lap 12. Twice in consecutive weeks during the 2019 season (Joliet and Daytona July), the lightning policy was implemented. The safety car was called on Lap 11 at Joliet and a restart was aborted on Lap 128 at Daytona because of lightning, leading to long delays caused by lightning. The Joliet race was suspended for more than three hours, while the Daytona race ended abruptly because of lightning and later rain. INDYCAR also called a lightning delay in 2019 at Detroit, where the race was shortened to 1 hour, 15 minutes after severe lightning delayed the start. Lightning also ended that season's Pocono 500 after 128 of 200 laps. In 2022, the Nashville NASCAR Cup round was delayed for lightning.